Nikki Sudden & The Jacobites – Dead Men Tell No Tales LP NEW Sale

Nikki Sudden & The Jacobites – Dead Men Tell No Tales LP

NEW. SEALED.

Recent reissue.

Numero Records

After the critical success of Nikki Sudden s collaboration with Dave Kusworth on the two Glass Records-issued Jacobites records — self-titled and Robespierre s Velvet Basement in 1984 and 1985 — Creation Records signed Sudden. Though no longer working with Kusworth, he continued to use the band s name. Texas, issued in 1986, featured a full band with brother and drummer Epic Soundtracks, bassist Duncan Sibbald, and help from Rowland S. Howard on slide guitar and feedback. It too was well-received, particular for its single Jangle Town, the ballad Death Is Hanging Over Me, and a cover of Neil Young s Captain Kennedy s Lament. By contrast, 1987 s Dead Men Tell No Tales is a shock. Legend has it that Sudden told Creation of his plans to cut 200 songs for his next album and keep the best, but was told this wasn t financially feasible. No matter the credibility of the tale, what he turned in was a 27-minute, eight-track set culled from three years of recording. Unlike the band s taut balance of rockers and ballads from the previous album, Dead Men feels very much like a loose solo affair, though Sibbald and Howard are credited. Mostly it s Sudden on guitars, dulcimer, and bouzouki, with sparsely utilized percussion, harmonium, and organ. When I Cross the Line is one of his finest ballads and vocal performances. An exceptionally dark love song, it s narrated by a man so grieved for his departed beloved, he claims he ll drink himself to death — yet in the end knows he won t. It sounds like it s from an earlier Jacobites session due to its relatively high fidelity and finished production. Before I Leave You and How Many Lies both sound like they came from yet another studio date due to a leaner sound, yet the mix seems finished. Sudden s way with a twisted romantic narrative is in fine form on both songs. On the former, organ, 12-string, bouzouki, dulcimer, and strummed six-string frame his layered fragile vocals. On the latter, slide guitar, lead acoustic, dulcimer, tambourine, and chord organ create the perfect backdrop for his protagonist s impossible conundrum. Dog Latin and Dog Rose are rough, seemingly improvised Eastern-tinged drones (each less than a minute) that serve alternately as intro and outro to (Girl with The) Wooden Leg, a wry acoustic ballad drenched in feedback and reverb. It s one of the three selections that feel more like demos than finished tracks. The others are the lovely Cupful of Change and the desolate, nearly seven-minute closer, Kiss at Dawn, where Howard gets to do his sonic, post-psych thing on guitar. It s one of the eeriest tracks in Sudden s catalog. As bent and dark as it is, Dead Men Tell No Tales is thematically consistent, but not as focused as his very best work, yet as an album it remains a necessary — if transitional — part of his discography.