1987's
High Priest
was
Alex Chilton
's first full-length studio album since the fascinatingly disastrous
Like Flies on Sherbert
in 1979. While it certainly wasn't the return to pure-pop form some fans were hoping for from the former leader of
Big Star
, it at least showed
Chilton
to be in firm command of his faculties again, and fronting a solid band of Memphis/New Orleans studio heavyweights.
boasted only four original songs from
, the best being the mildly sleazy
"Thing for You"
(though the just-plain-weird
"Dalai Lama"
has a certain perverse charm), but he dug up a handful of worthwhile covers, including the good-and-greasy
"Make a Little Love"
and a fine, obscure
Carole King
number,
"Let Me Get Close to You."
While
's vocals betray a certain inscrutable irony, he's in fine voice throughout, and his wildly underrated guitar work is very much in evidence. ~ Mark Deming