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I've been sitting on this one awhile, and I'd say it was a good thing
I did. I loved Ike Reilly's debut album Salesmen and Racists,
but the first few go-arounds of Sparkle in the Finish had me
thinking that this album was a bunch of b-sides to the all-a debut
of Salesmen. I was all prepared to write about how Ike still
had the songwriter's gift, and as sophomore slumps go, this was still
a solid and worthy effort, but that it didn't quite measure up to
expectation.
But, funny things happen when you allow yourself to dig below the
surface of an album. I finally figured out what was really up with
this CD, and I've equated it to this: If Salesmen and Racists
was the glitzy, tricked out Crown Victoria that Ike so dearly loved,
then Sparkle in the Finish is a portrait of that same vehicle
sitting in a salvage yard. The appeal of SaR was its self-deprecating,
smart-assed, foul-mouthed sense of humor, a satire of a suburban-white-boy-hip-hopster
who was entranced with the materialistic, playboy lifestyle, even
though he was clearly a pathetic poser underneath the veneer. Sparkle
in the Finish is a comparatively morose depiction of the party,
post-mortem.
Sparkle in the Finish has gone a few shades darker than the
freewheeling image of Bob Dylan singing songs written by Lenny
Bruce that typified Reilly's debut. If we assume that Ike portrays
a singular narrator of both albums, then this second offering reveals
a more somber and grim storyteller. The former's braggadocio has been
stripped away and ground into dust by the crushing life-debt accumulated
by the boozy, coke-head philandering of himself and his friends as
detailed in Salesmen. The narrator has matured and is no longer
fooled by the alluring draw of a high-octane lifestyle. The partiers,
players, and gangsters of the first album are the dropouts, burnouts
and addicts of the latter. Time and attrition have wrought a new perspective
and a maturation of Reilly's tone that is considerably more serious,
introspective and philosophical, but no less significant than it was
before. If there is a slump to the sophomore, it is in the resignatory
droop in his shoulders; the album however, is another success from
the most genuinely gritty and keen-witted folk-pop-rock artist working
today.
P.S. It's a goddamn shame that his first album had such weak sales
as it was a true masterpiece from start to finish. "Original"
is such a weak word; one that gets hurled at me by every press release
I've ever laid eyes on. So, I won't call Ike "original."
You can directly spot the influences in his music, but he's the only
one remotely close to doing things the way he does. If nothing else,
he remains unique.
-JD
Track Listing:
1. I Don't Want What You Got (Goin On)
2. Holiday in NY
3. It's Alright to Die
4. Whatever Happened to the Girl in Me?
5. Boat Song, The (We're Getting Loaded)
6. Garbage Day
7. Our Lady of Arturo
8. Ballad of the Choir Boy Band Robber
9. Waitin' For Daddy
10. St. Joe's Band
11. Ex-Americans, The
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The
Ike Reilly Assassination 
