Richard Davies - 2000 - Barbarians

Quality: 3.5 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 3.5 out of 5

Critical consensus tends to laud There's Never Been A Crowd Like This while considering this a lesser effort. I've always seen this the other way around. TNBACLT did have some intricate production, but to me it all sounded a little samey and production for the sake of production. I feel that Davies' songwriting is much better on Barbarians, his third solo album, and lets the production serve the songs instead of the other way around.

As it is, the first three tracks of Barbarians are among Davies' best. "Coldest Day" opens the album to a slightly ominous, yet still inviting note, while "Palo Alto" is a gliding acoustic driven number with some cool delayed vocals. Even better is "Stars," which has been randomly appearing in my head for the past seven years and is a refined version of the masterful guitar psych of The Moles.

Indeed, Davies makes a full return to the lo-fi garage clamor of the Moles on "Great Republic." It's the kind of variation that I felt was missing on TNBACLT.

Admittedly, this is a front loaded album, and the second half of the disc is like a more stripped down version of TNBACLT (and once again drifting into Robyn Hitchcock territory). Still, this gives his songs a little more room to breathe, and once again Davies' awesome vocals adds a much needed layer to tracks like "Formulas." Besides, it's still a short album at 33 minutes and can survive a little bit of a sound plateau.

As a context note, the Australian Davies had immigrated to America by the time of this album. The word is that Barbarians is a bit of a protest, social-issue album, and I guess the lyrics are a little less abstract than usual. Still, there's enough abstraction that I would have never caught on if someone hadn't told me. I guess the cover would hint at that too. Maybe I'm just not that smart.

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Richard Davies - 2000 - Barbarians

Richard Davies - 1996 - There's Never Been A Crowd Like This

Quality: 3 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 3 out of 5

After finally ditching the Moles brand, Richard Davies made a quick detour with Eric Matthews for the good but somewhat-overrated Cardinal before commensing on his proper solo career. Cardinal apparently dissolved because of Davies dark musical undercurrents, but strangely enough this solo album opts for the light anyway.

Davies abandoned his experimental songwriting of the last Moles album and coasted into a more folk rock, singer-songwriter vein for There's Never Been A Crowd Like This. This isn't to say that Davies doesn't continue with some quirky arrangements, and his lyrics remain very abstract, but the psychedelic elements here are notably less. The baisc instrumentation here is relatively conventional sounding (although very well-produced) drums, bass, acousitc guitar, and piano, although Davies' sense of singing and harmony remains pretty spacey.

This is actually a bit of a problem as the album soungs a little too uniform for my tastes. There's just not enough variation. As it is the best tracks here feature Davies' odder vocals as on "Sign Up Maybe For Being" and "Jubilee." It often seems that Davies is encroaching on Robyn Hitchcock territory, which I feel was a mistake as it takes away from Davies' strengths. Still, he is quite a craftsman and there's nothing here which isn't well put together, even if it's not as inspired as some of his other efforts. The best we get here are some acceptable indie-pop tracks like the opening "Transcontinental."

This is another short album, not quite reaching the 30 minute mark. But unlike the even-shorter Instinct, Davies' doesn't really think outside the box. Aside from a few strange dischord and atonal guitar parts, Davies' doesn't really do anything particularly experimental until the sped up ragtime of "Showtime," although it's nowhere near as innovative as his previous works. We'll just catagorize tihs disc as pleasant but somewhat forgettable.

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Richard Davies - 1996 - There's Never Been A Crowd Like This