Search - Marshall Crenshaw :: Downtown

Great music that is too hard to find and needs reissuing

John Stodder | livin' just enough | 05/17/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Marshall Crenshaw, an overnight sensation who quickly fell from grace by somehow falling on the wrong side of Rolling Stone critics (it's hard to believe they ever mattered very much) and became a cult artist, is gradually disappearing from view. When he tours, he tours alone, playing before small but intensely loyal crowds. Although Rhino has reissued his popular first album, and put together an excellent best-of, most of the rest of his catalogue is now out of print and increasingly hard to find. If you somehow have the sad fate of being a fan, like me, who considers Crenshaw's artistry on a par with the greatest rock ever had to offer, your first move should be to buy up what you can that's in-print, before it goes out of print. Then you can start hunting for the rarities. "Downtown" is one of his rarest, and one of his best. I had the LP, have never gotten close to the CD, which was out for 20 minutes, and recently managed to score an unopened cassette. It's so great, it's hard to believe this wasn't a gigantic hit. But, it wasn't. The best-of includes four of the best songs, including "Vague Memory," "Little Wild One" "Blues is King," and the hilariously sad "I'm Sorry (but so is Brenda Lee)." But, if you're a fan, you will also want to be able to hear the eight songs omitted from the best-of, including the beautifully composed "The Distance Between," "Terrifying Love" (featuring producer T. Bone Burnett on sitar), the bopping "Shake Up Their Minds," and especially "Yvonne," one of Crenshaw's trademark epic tales of romance gained and lost. Any of these would have earned a spot on the best-of, and deserve to be heard today. This album might've failed commercially, despite its excellence, because compared to his first two, it does have a melancholy feeling to it. Even the upbeat songs use a lot of minor keys. I think Crenshaw has said this album, and its successor "Mary Jean," both reflect his disillusionment and loss of confidence in the wake of his big build-up and fall. But to me, that enriches the music all the more. T-Bone Burnett's production is among his best efforts--clean, with a very "live" sound that was somewhat of a change from the Phil Spectorish sounds of his first two albums. I hope the folks at Rhino read this review and think about it, and decide the world needs to hear this album in its entirety, on CD, remastered, etc. etc. But in case they don't, I recommend you pay whatever reasonable amount you can to get the few copies left on this earth of "Downtown.""