I'll hold up my hands and confess I gave Wunderlich
some pretty short shrift the last time our paths crossed on these pages. In
doing so though, I'm conscious that was also the first time our paths
had ever crossed and it's been nagging at me a bit that I risk damning an entire
fifty or so year career based on my reaction to a single album that may or may
not be representative of the whole. So with that in mind, and in order to honour
the maxim that everybody deserves a second chance, I've given him another go by
giving this album a listen, and I chose it because, on the one hand, having the
words 'New Pop Organ Sound' in the title at least offers the promise of
something a bit different and, on the other, that woman on the cover put me in
mind of a young Kate Bush, albeit a young Kate Bush who looks like she wishes
she was elsewhere doing something better.
So what of it then? Well it's probably easier to start with what's the same - 'Wunderlich Pops 4' is another set of instrumentals played medley style primarily on a Hammond organ. The tracklist is there on the cover and it's the usual mix of the familiar, the rather less so and the 'I have absolutely no idea what this is', but again, it doesn't matter too much; although Wunderlich doesn't take any liberties with the tunes and trots them out faithfully, none of them stick around long enough to allow any kind of purchase - no sooner does a melody appear that's familiar enough to whistle, Klaus drops it and is off to the next one before it has chance to bed down. So far, so plus ca change then.
Where this does differ though is that, unlike the previous album, 'Wunderlich Pops 4' is not just Klaus plonking away at the Hammond; there's a live band backing him on much of this too, including a bassist so clipped he sounds like he's using a masonry nail as a pick. What this serves to do is round out the sound into another dimension other than the flat plain of previous. And not only that - 'Wunderlich Pops 4' also has plenty of changes of key, tempo and rhythm, meaning that compared to 'Hammond Pops 8', we're definitely closer to Oz than Kansas. It actually sounds like 'proper' music that someone has put some thought into.
Saying that, Klaus's tendency to suddenly pull rugs at the drop of a hat so that happy becomes maudlin and quick becomes slow are as disconcerting and violently unexpected as a funeral car suddenly pulling a handbrake turn into the cemetery, which doesn't do much for any mood maintenance. I guess that's kind of inevitable when you have tunes as eclectic as 'The Hustle', 'I'm Not In Love', 'Sailing' and 'Love Theme From The Godfather' bumping up against each other - it might serve to keep you on your toes, but it also means this is still never going to be any kind of 'go to' album for me whenever I want to hear some music, and I'm still at a loss as to why anyone would ever want more than one album of this stuff.
So what of it then? Well it's probably easier to start with what's the same - 'Wunderlich Pops 4' is another set of instrumentals played medley style primarily on a Hammond organ. The tracklist is there on the cover and it's the usual mix of the familiar, the rather less so and the 'I have absolutely no idea what this is', but again, it doesn't matter too much; although Wunderlich doesn't take any liberties with the tunes and trots them out faithfully, none of them stick around long enough to allow any kind of purchase - no sooner does a melody appear that's familiar enough to whistle, Klaus drops it and is off to the next one before it has chance to bed down. So far, so plus ca change then.
Where this does differ though is that, unlike the previous album, 'Wunderlich Pops 4' is not just Klaus plonking away at the Hammond; there's a live band backing him on much of this too, including a bassist so clipped he sounds like he's using a masonry nail as a pick. What this serves to do is round out the sound into another dimension other than the flat plain of previous. And not only that - 'Wunderlich Pops 4' also has plenty of changes of key, tempo and rhythm, meaning that compared to 'Hammond Pops 8', we're definitely closer to Oz than Kansas. It actually sounds like 'proper' music that someone has put some thought into.
Saying that, Klaus's tendency to suddenly pull rugs at the drop of a hat so that happy becomes maudlin and quick becomes slow are as disconcerting and violently unexpected as a funeral car suddenly pulling a handbrake turn into the cemetery, which doesn't do much for any mood maintenance. I guess that's kind of inevitable when you have tunes as eclectic as 'The Hustle', 'I'm Not In Love', 'Sailing' and 'Love Theme From The Godfather' bumping up against each other - it might serve to keep you on your toes, but it also means this is still never going to be any kind of 'go to' album for me whenever I want to hear some music, and I'm still at a loss as to why anyone would ever want more than one album of this stuff.
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