From Mr Big to Broken Home & Back 1977 ~ 2007 ALBUM REVIEW
DICKEN -
From Mr Big
To Broken Home
And Back,
1977-2007
Angel Air 2007
The one that got away from fame with a talent intact catches up with the times.
This compilation must be approached with a good pinch of caution as there's a genius at work - of almost Dickensian proportions. It's just that Dicken, or Jeff Pain, isn't that famous, but this is one of the world's greatest injustices. Yet maybe it's because he had no chance to succumb to the excesses which go with success that the singing guitarist, assisted at different times by Mutt Lange and Ian Hunter, has retained the amazing way with the tune, as both songwriter and performer, that's on display here. It's emphasized by the flow of music spread across two discs, titled "Rock" and "Songs", in no particular order - neither chronological nor thematic.
They're just the author's faves, and one can share his sentiment towards such soul-tickling smashes as reggae of "Hold Me Baby" and airy, transparent "Romeo", the only hit of MR BIG, the veteran's '70s band, "Stop Looking At Me" which bears a spark, not gloom, of the '80s sound Dicken explored with BROKEN HOME, or glitzy "Down To The Hollywood" from MR BIG UK, Dicken's current endeavor, called so to not be confused with the Americans who stole the name. There's always pop sensibilities proudly worn on the sleeve pulled over sharp riffs with a silver pipes sometimes not unlike those of Steve Marriott's, like in gently dramatic "Mona Lisa" from 1979 or menacing "Look Out For The Death Boy" released later under the artist's own name. It might be thanks to his clever editing applied recently to most of the tracks here that they all sound as if composed and recorded today. And who else, but Dicken, could combine punky chant "I wanna get high" with pure rhythm-and-blues harmonica back in 1977 with "Behind Enemy Lines" to aspire much higher almost 30 years on with the celestial buzz that is "Heaven Is For You"? That's what is Dickensian epic in small portions.
