"THE VOICE" is in fine form
Hoodoo Chile | Great Wide Open, USA | 12/28/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
""Standing On The Edge" is yet another example of the raw vocal power that Frankie displayed so effortlessly on earlier albums. This is a fine return to soulful hard rock, rather than the polished pop sound of it's predecessor, "Easy Money". Miller's two biggest assets, his big gravel voice and the ability to put a song across, are here in abundance. The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section guys, plus guitarists like Chris Spedding and Wayne Perkins, remain unrivaled for sheer talent. They're so good they actually sound like Frankie's band, instead of elite session musicians.
4 of the songs were co-written with Andy Fraser, a long time Miller writing companion, with Frankie writing everything else except "Firing Line", a chugging pop-rocker. It's rewarding to hear Miller and Fraser writing again and the resulting tunes are all solid.
If there's any downside it lies in several tunes that run at the same tempo. They could've been done differently, allowing for a bit more diversity of sound. But, the upside is BIG, with some of Frankie's best writing to date. Needless to say, the vocals are superb as always. How he's able to coax the little squeaks, cracks, moans and graoans out of his vocal chords is beyond words. "Jealousy" is a slow smoldering blues and is guaranteed to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up almost instantly. The ballad "To Dream The Dream" has beautiful wordplay going on thru the entire song. "Angels With Dirty Faces", a bit of mid tempo pop/rock, also has Frankie selecting his words very carefully to good results. "Danger Danger", "Don't Stop", "Zap Zap", and "Standing On The Edge" all rock hard and wouldn't sound out of place on other Miller albums, especially "Double Trouble" or "Full House".
There are only a handful of Frankie Miller albums available. It took a long time for his catalog to be put on CD. I wouldn't recommend this one as a starting point, (try "The Rock" or "High Life") but if you owned any of his albums and were moved by the great vocal ability he had, you should but this disc now."
Track Listings (10) - Disc #1