Honey and Tears is a terrific solo disc from Richie Parsons, lead singer/guitarist in Unnatural Axe. With songs like “Love Letter,” “Evelyn,” “Nowhereville” and opening track “When Fall Begins,” we get the softer, pop side of Richie, and so well it works with cascading instruments and vocal sensitivity as on “Hey Little One.” “When You’re Dancing” is not “No Surfing in Dorchester Bay,” it is mature and elegant as this is an album of love songs infused with lots of ACP – adult contemporary punk.
“Summer” might be the sequel to “Can’t Wait for the Summertime” with its guitar that the Tornados (“Telstar”) almost veered towards, and the Ventures would over-indulge in. Nicely placed -as are the acoustics on final track “Right On Time.” “Blue Sands” works well with “Summer” and is an adult beach party song for Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon 20 years after the American International Pictures teen craze of the 60s. A lament with lots of layered guitars after the surfboards have been put away and the aforementioned Dorchester Bay is safe from the rowdy twenty-somethings. All that’s needed is Roxy Music’s Andy Mackay to bring his Wild Weekend on board
“Mix Tape” is a strong splash of melody and rock and roll drive that takes jangling guitars and puts them underwater, think the Flamin’ Groovies tempting the grunge fates but not falling over the cliff. Parsons should push this song on hundreds if not thousands of radio stations …it has all the elements A cover of Lou Reed’s “Love Makes You Feel” works, always nice to cover the master. Extra credit goes to: “Mix Tape,” “Evelyn” and “Love Letter” – they are most outstanding.
Here’s Lou’s Version on YouTube Play both videos at once and see what happens, even if you have one 3 seconds behind the other.
Joe Viglione is the Chief Film Critic at TMRZoo.com. He has written thousands of reviews and biographies for AllMovie.com, Allmusic.com, Gatehouse Media, Al Aronowitz’s The Blacklisted Journal, and a variety of other media outlets. Joe also produces and hosts Visual Radio, a seventeen year old variety show on cable TV which has interviewed Jodie Foster, director/screenwriter David Koepp, Michael Moore, John Cena, comics/actors Margaret Cho, Gilbert Gottfried, Gallagher, musicians Mark Farner and Don Brewer of Grand Funk Railroad, Ian Hunter of Mott The Hoople, Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, Felix Cavaliere of The Rascals, political commentator Bill Press and hundreds of other personalities.
