CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
BALCONES FAULT: "It's All Balcones Fault" (Cream):: Three excellent songs on one side from this Austinbased unit—one New Orleans shuffle with country-rock vocal, one Jamaican polka, and one remake of the theme from Busby Berkeley's 42nd Street.
CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
by Robert Christgau
BALCONES FAULT: 'It's All Balcones Fault" (Cream):: Three excellent songs on one side from this Austinbased unit—one New Orleans shuffle with country-rock vocal, one Jamaican polka, and one remake of the theme from Busby Berkeley's 42nd Street. But somehow they don't cohere. This is eclecticism pushed over the brink of schtick, as if Dr. Hook bought out Asleep at the Wheel and got turned into Manhattan Transfer as punishment.
B-
THE BEATLES: "Live! at the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962" (Lingasong):: I don't know exactly how you rate documentary value, especially with a subject as interesting as this one, but I do know that nothing I had read prepared me for the abysmal sound quality of this record, especially how far down (and away) the voices are, nor for the occasional listlessness of the performances themselves. I've got nothing against rawness—in fact, I love it—but there's no excuse when it doesn't cook.
C