{"id":18293,"date":"2022-04-09T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-09T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=18293"},"modified":"2022-04-06T18:32:41","modified_gmt":"2022-04-06T18:32:41","slug":"chip-znuff-perfectly-imperfect-frontiers-avalon-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=18293","title":{"rendered":"Chip Z\u2019Nuff – \u2018Perfectly Imperfect\u2019 (Frontiers\/Avalon Japan)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The line-up history of Chicago Power Pop legends Enuff Z\u2019Nuff is a complicated thing to follow. In a nutshell; After 15 years and 10 albums singer leaves band – guitarist (not original guitarist) becomes singer. Guitarist quits band – singer rejoins. Singer quits again – guitarist becomes singer again and subsequently quits…bassist and founding member becomes singer. In-between all this, add the usual band antics including drug addiction\/stints in rehab, lawsuits, being shafted by record label\/band members, and the tragic deaths of 2 band members. Are you still following?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fair play, Chip Z\u2019Nuff  is still holding the Enuff Z\u2019Nuff flag flying high in 2022 and if he looks a bit disheveled in his trippy, hippy attire then, he has good reason to be. Not only is his third studio album as lead singer of Enuff Z\u2019Nuff to be released later this year, he precedes that with this, his second solo album entitled \u2018Perfectly Imperfect\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You could be forgiven for being skeptical when Chip took over lead vocal duties from the estranged Donnie Vie. Yeah, the harmony vocals of Chip & Donnie were sublime, but could the bassist possibly pull it off without his longtime songwriting partner? Well, with 3 EZN albums under his diamond studded belt as lead singer and his second solo album on the shelves, it seems the rose-tinted bespectacled Chip is doing just fine on his own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, the ghost of his former singer is never far from any EZN related release and this album is no different. The first single \u2018Heaven In A Bottle\u2019 is an old Chip & Donnie tune that harks back to the early years of the band and has been doing the rounds in demo form for eons. It\u2019s a typical, mid-paced ode to Cheap Trick, the sort of tune they could knock out in their sleep back in the day. Chip\u2019s trippy, laid-back tones are more subdued compared to Donnie\u2019s Lennon-like rasp, and that feel sets the pace for the whole album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s impossible to review this album and not make comparisons to his past songwriting partner. And Chip doesn\u2019t really help matters on \u2018Doctor\u2019 by pilfering the main hook from Donnie\u2019s \u2018Light Shine On\u2019 from his 2014 release \u2018The White Album\u2019. But that said, the duo co-wrote so many tunes the original idea could be from either of them, I guess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His reworking of \u2018My Heroin\u2019 (cunningly re-titled as \u2018Heroin\u2019 here) from EZN\u2019s 1995 album \u2018Tweaked\u2019 is quite frankly the highlight of the album. I was skeptical on first listen, as its one of my favourite EZN tunes, but fair play, he somehow improves on it. The original was a bare bones recording, a masterpiece of the acoustic slide, harmonica and gut-wrenching sadness, an ode to the pitfalls of addiction. I didn\u2019t think a full band version would improve it, but somehow, with just the addition of bass and drum tracks, it does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the originals on offer, album opener \u2018Welcome To The Party\u2019 brings to mind \u2018We\u2019re Alright\u2019 (again from \u2018Tweaked\u2019) and is a fine listen. It chugs along on the cool hook, again coming on like a long-lost Cheap Trick poptastic dittie that would not sound out of place on \u2018Live at Budokan\u2019. \u2018I Still Hail Ya\u2019 has a quirky vibe, it\u2019s full of dreamy pop melodies and euphoric vocalisin\u2019. And I’m still not sure if \u20183 Way\u2019 is a driving song or a euphemism for kinky sex, but it’s one of the more upbeat Power Pop ditties on offer and I like it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still dressing like a late 60\u2019s Carnaby Street reject at 53 years old, Chip Z\u2019Nuff is flying high again with a selection of old melodies, reimaginings and new ideas.\u00a0 But listening to \u2018Perfectly Imperfect\u2019, I’m left wondering why this album is released under the \u2018solo\u2019 moniker? It is no real departure from the signature Chip sound, but it is a departure from the Enuff Z\u2019Nuff signature sound, as are the last 3 albums without his songwriting partner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are an Enuff Z\u2019Nuff fan you will love it I’m sure, but at just 9 songs, it speaks volumes to me that the strongest offerings are the last two on the album; the aforementioned \u2018Heroin\u2019, a song Chip wrote a lifetime ago, and a 48-year-old Mott The Hoople song called \u2018Honaloochie Boogie\u2019. Maybe it’s just a stop gap to keep the fanbase happy, or one of those \u2018contractual obligation\u2019 albums, but as the title suggests, this solo album feels a bit cobbled together, out of time and out of place. But you know what, I do quite like it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy Here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author: Ben Hughes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The line-up history of Chicago Power Pop legends Enuff Z\u2019Nuff is a complicated thing to follow. In a nutshell; After 15 years and 10 albums singer leaves band – guitarist (not original guitarist) becomes singer. Guitarist quits band – singer rejoins. Singer quits again – guitarist becomes singer again and subsequently quits…bassist and founding member […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18294,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[7576,726,1787,1818,1710,1681,1680,1701,2052],"class_list":["post-18293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-avalon-japan","tag-ben-hughes","tag-its-a-revolution","tag-new-album","tag-rpm-online","tag-rpmnews1","tag-rpmonline","tag-tcb","tag-vinyl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18293"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18296,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18293\/revisions\/18296"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}