Peter Wolf: Up to No Good : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Up to No Good is an earthy, no-nonsense rock & roll album that finds Peter Wolf, former singer for the J. Geils Band, rebounding strongly after a few years out of the public eye. While anchored in the raucous house-party R&B tradition that was the mainstay of the J. Geils Band, Wolf's third solo project boasts a street-smart, up-to-the-minute sound that could cause a traffic jam on any urban-contemporary dance floor. Programmed like a hot night on the town, it has split-second segues and juke-joint tempos that don't relent.

Up to No Good gets gloriously loud and messy right away, as raunchy guitars, 4/4-to-the-floor drums and wailing saxes provide forceful accompaniment to social director Wolf's enthusiastic cheerleading. On "Go Wild," frat-rock guitars and hand claps give Wolf license to forsake lyrics and pump up the jam with catch phrases related only by a playful spirit of abandon: "Shake a little for me baby/Who you gonna love?/I can't help myself/I go wild – go wild."

From its title on down, the album is unapologetic in its hard-charging pursuit of a good time, as bad-boy Wolf gets his ya-yas out on instant anthems to cruisin' and sportin' like "Drive All Night" and "Up to No Good." Yet something interesting happens midway through. The party starts to take on a darker, more compulsive cast with "Lost in Babylon," as Wolf urges, "Back door's open, anything goes, come on!" A vortex of drums and guitars sucks you into deeper water, where the thrills are greater but so are the risks. Without abating in intensity, the rest of the album becomes more lyrically incisive, as Wolf grapples with self-doubt ("Arrows and Chains") and confusion ("Shades of Red – Shades of Blue") while longing for a peaceful escape from the madness ("Daydream Getaway").

The emotional nadir is reached on "River Runs Dry," a fierce, churning blues that depicts a bottoming out with unflinching candor: "Livin's so easy/When you're livin' a lie/But you can't swim the river/When the river runs dry." The finale, "Never Let It Go" – an affectionate memoir for an old friend who died along the way – clears the air after the rubble of "River Runs Dry" with a vow to persevere despite the pitfalls. In short, Wolf does it all on Up to No Good: He throws a hell of a party, mulls over the consequences the morning after, then takes his leave with a friendly pat on the back.