Wilson, Gary: Tormented

Yeah, OK, I can’t even pretend to get stuff like this. Billed as the ‘legendary lipstick-smeared, mannequin kissing, rubber gloves wearing, ladies man…’, this one-chap offering (with one or two cameo exceptions) invites us to take a tour of the protagonist’s broken heart as we discover that Gary Wilson is… Tormented. And so was I, in truth, by the time that this CD had stopped protesting in my music player.

On a purely personal note, I listen to music to be seduced by a sublime melody, or engrossed by top range musicianship. A killer chorus and cool arrangements will draw me and, while I can easily take in the sparsity of a heartfelt Americana country album, or blues workout, I do love honed production values too. Unfortunately, for me at least, none of those intentions could be further from where Tormented is aimed, with the majority of these lo-fi moments seemingly based round what sounds like Casio keyboard lines and beats. For Wilson it would appear that the journey and the emotion is what it’s all about but presented in a middling croon and with jangles of guitars here and echoing vox there, the access point remains a long way from view.

Billed as ‘catchy’, the album’s lead single “Gary Lives In The Twilight Zone� sums up all of the - I’d guess thoroughly intentional - barriers to overcome here. Single stroke melodies interspersed by a simple keyboard solo and nursery rhyme like vocals. The message may well be in the words, but with ‘tsss-tsss-tsss-tikatikatikatika’ beats looking to nail all of this in place, my attention had wandered long before any meaning could be derived.

I’ve no doubt that Gary Wilson will have a host of cult followers hanging on his every word - we also get some poetry here - however this performance/music simply sailed so far over my head I barely even knew it was there. In truth, I struggled to even give this album the one star awarded above, but I’m guessing it’s well intentioned…

Track Listing
1. A Special Day
2. Happy Birthday To My Girl
3. Life With The Sin Eater
4. The Sin Eater
5. You Looked Cool In Outer Space
6. The Merry Go Round
7. Midnight And You
8. The Wind And The Trees
9. Gary Lives In The Twilight Zone
10. Frank Roma Is Tormented
11. Where Did You Go
12. Tormented
13. It's Almost Midnight
14. You Had The Choice
15. Where Is Linda
16. A Sad Town

Added: August 27th 2020
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Gary Wilson online
Hits: 699
Language: english

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