Search - Kid Creole & the Coconuts :: Wise Guy

At Last!

Stephen Mallonee | st. lous, missouri | 08/25/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have waited a long, long time for this album to come out on CD. Along with Lord Upminister by Ian Dury and Speaking in Tongues by The Talking Heads, these three albums made 1983 a very fun musical year. Incredibly humorous lyrics, great beats and The Coconuts... What more could anybody want? 'Stool Pigeon', 'Annie, I'm Not Your Daddy', 'Imitation', 'Loving You Made a Fool Out Of Me' all great songs. If you ever were lucky enough to see Kid Creole in concert, you will know what I mean."

Open Investigation

J P Ryan | Waltham, Massachusetts United States | 03/07/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I became aware of Kid C. because I loved Dr Buzzard's Original Savannah Band, who recorded three classic albums issued from 1976 to 1980 - a fourth, 'Calling All Beatniks' (1983) featured Corey Daye, Stony Browder, and Mickey Sevilla, but not August Darnell or Andy Hernandez, who had formed the Coconuts. I still think Dr B's Savannah Band is a far greater and more original group, for Darnell and Browder were a visionary songwriting and production team and Daye an astonishingly underrated vocalist. Their long out of print recordings are masterpieces that defy genre, musically intoxicating, with an almost dreamlike sonic density that (to name the most obvious)combines 1940s swing, soul, 'disco', Latin, and rock 'n' roll into something utterly original. The songs are richly allusive and almost too smart to reach a wide audience. Kid Creole was Darnell's splinter group, and good as they are, the special combination of individuals that makes all truly great bands, and made Dr. Buzzard so compelling, would not be equalled. Neither Mick nor Keith IS the Stones, after all. Yet KC did make some great records, and 'Wise Guy' may be their best. The music is less richly textured; Darnell instead simplifies his goals and achieves them: great hooks and accessable melodies, and unlike Dr Buzzard most of this record works as terrific dance music, still quirkier than Chic at their best. If you're interested, find "Dr Buzzard's Original Savanna Band", "Meets King Pennett" and "Goes To Washington" on vinyl if you can (even the cover graphics are meticulous and reward careful attention. The first two can be heard, scrambled out of order, on "The Best Of" CD issued in the '90s. "Wise Guy", from Wounded Bird, is the ssame record as the UK import "Tropical Gangsters". The slightly more expensive import however offers superior remastering, and several terrific bonus cuts, mostly remixes taken from 12-inch singles. Overall that's the edition to own, and the best intro to Kid Creole I can think of."

A "wise" purchase (somehow that's all I could come up with)

Gordon Rentificulatorishismikallist | Drowning in Texas | 08/22/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I had heard of August Darnell and his prestige as a formidable lyricist and highly entertaining musical personality simply by exposure to a wide variety of music, but I'd never been previously acquainted with his own music. I bought this record on recommendation of Robert Christgau, the literate, renowned, perennially caustic Village Voice "Dean of Rock Critics", and couldn't've been more pleasantly surprised by the excellent opener "Annie, I'm Not Your Daddy" - not because the lyrics were witty, though they were indeed amusing, but because of its instant melodicism and gripping Island rhythms. This is something akin to island-pop, an ideal summer mixture. The music is very slick but that sort of thing has never bothered me, in fact sometimes I prefer a little gloss and it makes each track more immediate in this context. The rest of Wise Guy continues to grow on me each day; this record is a pleasure sans guilt, and I'd recommend starting your Kid Creole collection here, without having become acquainted with any of his other albums, simply because I've become so hooked by it. Plus it's remastered. So why not get going?"