Rowland S. Howard

Rowland S. Howard
"Pop Crimes"
2009 (Liberation)

1. (I Know A Girl) Called Jonny- 03:51
2. Shut Me Down - 04:21
3. Lifes What You Make It - 06:43
4. Pop Crimes - 07:23
5. Nothin - 03:51
6. Wayward Man - 03:42
7. Ave Maria - 04:00
8. The Golden Age Of Bloodshed - 04:31

DL: MP3-320k-LAME3.98

Review from Wire Magazine (March 2010):
"Despite a lifetime spent playing with groups and collaborating with a variety of postpunk musicians, ex-Birthday Party guitarist Rowland S Howard produced only two solo albums. The second, Pop Crimes, emerged a decade after its predecessor Teenage Snuff Film and two months before his death from liver cancer in December 2009. Backed by his ex-Birthday Party colleague Mick Harvey and The Hungry Ghosts’ JP Shilo, with appearances from Brian Hooper and Sean Stewart, Pop Crimes is Howard at his finest. Opening track “(I Know) A Girl Called Jonny” is an organ driven, lust-fuelled duet between Howard and HTRK’s Jonnine Standish, which recalls the 1960s cinematic pop of Serge Gainsbourg and Brigette Bardot. The timbre of the album moves from a sonic detournement that evokes the structures and tonal moods of 60s girl groups, to the driving rhythms and slashing guitar of the title track and “The Golden Age Of Bloodshed”. Howard’s guitar playing moves from raw notes to sonic barrage, yet it retains a unique delicacy of touch. His voice, rich and dark, enunciates tales of desire and failure. Along the way he makes Townes Van Zandt’s “Nothin’” his own and transforms Talk Talk’s “Life’s What You Make It” into a churning, relentlessly hypnotic beast through almost abstracted layers of guitar noise. One album highlight,“Shut Me Down”, echoes with the refrain “I miss you so much” – yearning has rarely been so well articulated as here. Similar images of decline and ruination dominate these songs, but there’s a knowingness and dark humour at play. When he sings “I do all my best thinking, unconscious on the floor” in “Wayward Man”, it’s with a wry worldliness."