Rockpile: Seconds Of Pleasure : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Dave Edmunds' reproduction of Smiley Lewis' early rock classic "I Hear You Knockin' " became an improbable hit in 1971, initiating the Welsh musician-producer's career-long preoccupation with American roots idioms. Edmunds' Fifties-revivalist oeuvre may be limited in scope, but it's sizable, so Legacy's new sixteen-song retrospective seems chintzy. It's also unbalanced, with only four tracks from the 1970s and a later live performance standing in for his sublime 1979 cover of Elvis Costello's "Girls Talk." Edmunds spent 1977 to '81 in Rockpile alongside seminal pub rocker Nick Lowe. Working with drummer Terry Williams and guitarist Billy Bremner, the partners spilled an ocean of beery sweat onstage, completing Seconds of Pleasure just before splintering. Lowe's trenchant wit and Edmunds' amped-up formalism are perfectly in sync throughout the LP as they romp through high-concept obscurities ("Teacher Teacher") and canny originals ("Heart"). The reissue adds four acoustic Everly Brothers covers plus three live cuts displaying the same loose-limbed snap as the quartet's studio work. In the booklet, Lowe calls Rockpile "a posh bar band," and that, of course, is the key to their charm.