By Gruesome Greg
After the success of his first unplugged album, Adrift, brought him over to Europe, where he toured with German singer Conny Ochs, Wino has released another acoustic effort, this one in collaboration with his European tour-mate. Hey, I’ll listen to anything with Wino’s name on it, but I have no idea who Conny Ochs is…
The two trade verses and harmonize on choruses for 40 minutes of low-key, lo-fi tunes, Ochs with a noticeably deeper voice than his American counterpart. As with Adrift, this album isn’t entirely acoustic; you can hear some gritty electric-guitar sounds on tunes like “Dust” which also includes a brief electric solo, while “Here Comes the Siren” throws some wah into the fray.
That said, the lack of variation on here starts to get boring after about three or four songs. The first Wino unplugged record was a neat little novelty, but even with a guest star on this one, I’d say it’s still one too many. Frankly, I can’t even see this tiding me over till the new Saint Vitus record comes out.
(Exile on Mainstream)
