''Wild Weekend'' is an album by the American band NRBQ, released in 1989. It was the band's first studio album in more than five years, due to disputes with their former label,

Bearsville Records Bearsville Records was founded in 1970 by Albert Grossman. Artists included Todd Rundgren, Elizabeth Barraclough, Foghat, Halfnelson/ Sparks, Bobby Charles, Randy VanWarmer, Paul Butterfield's Better Days, Lazarus, Jesse Winchester, and NRBQ. ...

. The album peaked at No. 198 on the ''Billboard'' 200. It sold around 75,000 copies in its first nine months of release. NRBQ promoted it by touring with R.E.M. The first single was "It's a Wild Weekend", for which the band shot a video. "If I Don't Have You" was the second single.

Production

The album was produced by Bill Scheniman and Andy Paley. Roswell Rudd and John Sebastian contributed to the album. The title track is a cover of

the Rockin' Rebels The Rebels (also known as The Rockin' Rebels) were a band from Buffalo, New York, known for their instrumental "Wild Weekend". The original members were Jim Kipler (Guitar), Mick Kipler (Saxophone), Tom Gorman (Drums) and Paul Balon (Bass/Guitar). ...

' song, with lyrics and additional instrumentation. "Boozoo, That's Who!" is about Boozoo Chavis; Chavis played accordion on the song. "Poppin' Circumstance" contains a trombone solo. Virgin Records helped the band select tracks for the album.

Critical reception

'' The Washington Post'' wrote that the album "harks back to the early '60s, when rock-and-roll didn't take itself quite so seriously, when every single brought forth unforced enthusiasm for a new car, a new guitar sound, a new girl, a new Saturday night."

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

stated: "First cute, then peculiar, then annoying, their callow act is turning positively perverse as they twinkle-toe past 40." The '' Chicago Sun-Times'' noted that "NRBQ has learned to make an album work as an album, rather than as a random selection of cute curiosities or the studio transplant of a bar band." '' The New York Times'' determined that it's the "combination of a hard-driving, eccentric rhythm section, mixed loud and up front, along with the strangely sophisticated and satisfying tunes, that allows the album to radiate so much pleasure." The '' Los Angeles Times'' opined that ''Wild Weekend'' "may well be the finest of the group's 17 albums, bristling with some of the best pop hooks since Brian Wilson's heyday, performed with a playground zeal coupled with a musicianship so good they make it seem effortless." AllMusic wrote that wrote that "the quartet retains its eclectic range of pop and rock mayhem, adapting several well-worn concert favorites for this studio platter." '' The Rolling Stone Album Guide'' concluded that "the spaced-out boyish charm starts to grate."

Track listing

References

{{reflist NRBQ albums 1989 albums Virgin Records albums