''Howling'' is an album by the Australian band
the Saints. The album was their first release after an eight-year recording hiatus. Chris Bailey chose to lose the big production of the 1980s records to make an album that was more akin to the early Saints punk sound. Bailey again employed a new line-up for the band. The album was released in 1996 in Australia and in 1997 everywhere else in the world.
Critical reception
The ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' called ''Howling'' "a tuneful, emotionally intense album in which
aileys equally at home playing elegantly crafted folk-rock ballads, bluesy, noir-ish extrapolations from Howlin' Wolf and, on 'Shadows', garage-rock that, if it's possible, sounds even more cheaply and haphazardly recorded than the Saints' debut album." ''
The Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...
'' determined that "the tone is set by the title track, a blunt portrayal of animal lust with its opening invective, driving backbeat and Bailey's tortured vocals, recorded in what sounds as if it is the bottom of a murky swamp."
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
wrote that "with repeated listens, Bailey's knack for a well-developed, melodic tune is revealed, as are a couple of thunderous, paranoid, wild, and totally cracked songs that sound like Bailey has turned psychopathic."
Track listing
All tracks composed by Chris Bailey; except where indicated
# "Howling" - 4:19
# "Shadows" - 4:10
# "Something Somewhere Sometime" - 3:35
# "Something Wicked" - 3:25
# "Only Stone" - 3:22
# "Good Friday" (Bailey,
Johnette Napolitano
Johnette Napolitano (born Jonette L. Napolitano; September 22, 1957) is an American singer, songwriter and bassist best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter, and bassist for the alternative rock group Concrete Blonde.
Early life
Johnette Nap ...
) - 4:23
# "Blown Away" - 5:14
# "Last and Laughing Mile" - 4:11
# "You Know I Know" - 3:30
# "Only Dreaming" - 3:21
# "Second Coming" - 3:50
# "All for Nothing" - 3:33
Personnel
*
Chris Bailey - vocals, guitar, occasional organ
*Ian Walsh, Mons Wieslander - guitar
*Joakim Täck - bass, engineering
*Andreas Jornvill - drums
References
The Saints (Australian band) albums
1996 albums
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