Search - Alex Chilton :: Loose Shoes and Tight Pussy

A Great One By Any Name

Memphis Evans | St. Louis Park, MN United States | 08/07/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is the same album as "Set". I bought "Set" because that's what it was called at the store I went to here in America, where unfortunately we seem to stop dirty album titles at the borders.Loose Shoes, Tight (censored) is actually a better name for the album than Set. The music seems well rehearsed, yet spontaneous and enjoyably ragged and unpredictable. If you enjoyed the albums "A Man Called Destruction", "High Priest", "Blacklist", and "Feudalist Tarts", you'll probably enjoy this as well. It's another collection of well-chosen R&B and Jazz rarities with the same clean, clear production as those albums.Mr. Chilton clearly enjoys bringing these songs to life with his excellent band. His singing is not quite like anyone else you've ever heard. By turns ironic, proud, and funny, this voice is very different from the voice he used with the Box Tops or Big Star. His guitar playing could best be described as educated punk jazz, which description might sound dull or academic but is in practice fascinating. He's got his own unique thing that he does and he's been doing it for twenty plus years and I love it. Get the album and catch him live next time he comes to your town."

Don't kid yourself......

johnnyqb | United States | 06/06/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Loose Shoes .... may be the best Alex Chilton solo album. And that four star review on here is nice and all, but someone (and it might as well be me) has to SHOUT here that this album just totally kicks butt and is the only Alex album I know that totally and accurately sums up his whole ideal performance mode. This record sounds like Alex on a really good night. It is beautifully produced, apparently all recorded in one day, with some celestial sloppiness on April in Paris, and just a perfect little shtick to Single Again to make it just a joyous country romp. This album is infected with great joy, the primitive rock/jazz/blues that is uniquely Alex Chilton. If you have seen Alex in the last 20 years, this record will make you feel like you are at one of his shows. And a really good show at that, where he only plays interesting tunes. There is no Volare, Little GTO, and all that other quirky stuff that Alex loves but which detracts a bit, IMHO, from the overall effect of the musical quality that he is putting out. You know how his shows usually have one or two really interesting jazzy songs that you have never heard? Well, this whole album is like that. Another thing I love is that the record is 41 minutes long. It does not seem half-baked like some of his records (even though I love those too). This record is better than High Priest. It is more raw, with more guitar work. It does not perhaps have the heights of "Thing for You" from that record (and its utterly transcendant guitar solo), but it has a more consistent level of achevement than that great record. There is no saw here, nothing at all except Alex on guitar an vocal, and longtime sidemen Ronald Dworkin and Ron Easley ably backing him up. These three know each other and their interplay is seamless. This is a great record, and I tell you truly: if you are an Alex Chilton fan and need to re-visit that, or you want to find out what he is about, this is the record to get. And what a great title too."