Reverend Horton Heat - Space Heater
Album Review witten by Matt Wetzler
3-31-98
I finally got my hands on the album Space Heater the Friday after it came out. Upon putting it in for the first time I immediately noticed that it was far different than any RHH album that came before it. This is most likey due to the production of Mr. Ed Stasium, and the fact that all three members of the band had a bigger hand in writing the songs. That said...
The good thing is, despite the very different sound of the album (the mark of a band that is growing/maturing), is that there are still songs that hark back to the classic RHH sound that most all of us love. Specifically I am talking about the songs Hello Mrs. Darkness and Native Tongue of Love which upon listening to them I was reminded of the album The Full Custom Gospel Sounds Of... as well as Smoke'em If You Got'em and the song Love Whip with the latter. Mi Amor sounds as if it could have been found on Liquor in the Front along side In Your Wildest Dreams.
This album is of course not without it's instramentals containing three of them. All display the normal RHH flair with a slightly different sound attributed probably to the production work on the album. Prophet Stomp is my favorite of the three with a sound that could be placed on really any previous album. Pride of San Jacinto was written by Jimbo and has lots of shouts and yells throughout for a well rounded instramental. The instramental Space Heater closes out the album.
I like this album more and more every listen. So many of the songs are so infectious that after only two full listens I found myself humming various tracks over and over again. So although you may not be all excited the first time you listen, just spin it through the player a few more times and I imagine you will be hooked. My call for the next single if there is one would be Starlight Lounge although I don't really have one favorite song. Other favorites include Lie Detector, For Never More, Native Toungue of Love, Couch Surfin' (which brings back the classic 'spoken word' bit about 3/4 the way through the song), and Texas Rock-A-Billy-Rebel. The only song I have withehld a positive judgement on Cinco De Mayo, but simply because I don't speak Spanish.
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Matt Wetzler
thew@mocksonkey.com
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