Search - Kim Mitchell :: Itch

Wow, Max rears it's ugly (beautiful) head

02/08/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Being a stateside fan of Mitchell's since the early Webster days, I probably have a different perspective on his body of work than Canadians fans. In Canada, much like with Genesis, Mitchell's fans seem to fall into two catagories: 1)Die hard fans from the Max Webster days 2) Newer pop fans who discovered him around the Rockland era when he had acheived a measure of top 40 success. Poor Kim never caught on in the big 50 unfortunately, so pretty much all of the American fans date back to the more experimental era of the 70's/early 80's. It was interesting for me, to say the least, to hear the previous reviewer refer to ITCH as "weird". Calling Kim Mitchell weird is like calling the Ramones "raw", you mean you never noticed this until recently? You can easily draw 3 distinct phases in Kim's career; the eccentric Webster stuff, the slightly less eccentric early 80's solo work, and the late 80's/early 90's I'm now Mark Knopfler VH1 phase. Well, in the god-awful genericness of it all, Kim's wonderfully quirky and absolutely unique brand of off-balance hard rock has been a balm to my soul and sometimes a crack in my windsheild. From the 1rst Webster LP to "Shakin" , Kim Mitchell was a one-of-a-kind. Like Monty Python, you either get it or you don't. Well, as you could probably guess, I am a much bigger fan of his more experimental material than the Rockland/Aural Fixations pandering to MOR airplay, and if you are as well, than I can promise you that ITCH is by far the freshest and most "Mitchell" Kim has been in years. This is my favorite solo album next to Akimbo, and even then, it's close. The hard rock is hard again, the "every song is mid-tempo for hopeful future use in a car commercial" format of Rockland is long gone, and the Pye is back doing what he does best. Please heed me on this one, if you are a fan of Toronto Tonto's, Go For Soda and In Context Of The Moon, then this is the closest you will get to that sound since 83'."

Kim's Strange Engine

Sampson Simpson | Canada | 12/08/2001

(2 out of 5 stars)

"1994 was a confusing time to be a Kim Mitchell fan. His last record, Aural Fixations, was pretty straightforward and for the first time lacked lyrics written by Pye Dubois. When 1994 kicked off, the new Kim single "Acrimony" featured Kim rapping. Yes, rapping. Comparisons to the Red Hot Chili Peppers were bandied about in the press.



So how good is Itch? Well, it's OK. Certainly not great, like Kim's past work with the near-legendary Max Webster. There are standard Kim rockers like "Wonder Where & Why" and some great grooves like "Lick Yer Finger". There are also just just plain weird moments that just don't work. "Acrimony" is one of them, and "Lemon Wedge" is another. "Lemon Wedge" is a funk tune with horns, but is ruined by some guy (Peter Fredette?) screaming out the chorus in a weird falsetto. Nice try, didn't work. Strangely though, those two songs made onto Kim's first solo Greatest Hits CD, so maybe I'm the one who's just not getting it. I leave that judgement up to you, but don't click "this review was not useful" just because you don't agree. Deal?



Kim had a good band on this CD, featuring "Spider" Sinnaeve on bass who did time in a couple legendary Canadian bands. As always you get some great, very soulful, guitar playing from The Kim.



Best tune on this CD is the last one, "Cheer Us On", a great campfire song that should have been a single. However, it wasn't, so it'll just have to remain one of those little-known album songs with a few diehard fans.



As it stands, Itch was a commercial flop, so maybe I'm not the one who was wrong. You decide."