Medicine Show (Deluxe Edition)

In 1982, the Dream Syndicate seemingly came out of nowhere (actually Davis, California, but close enough) to become the most talked-about band in underground rock with their debut album, The Days of Wine and Roses, recorded in just three days for the tiny but prestigious Ruby Records when the group was just nine months old. After waves of positive press, A&M Records signed the band, and they went into the studio with producer Sandy Pearlman, who spent five months painstakingly crafting their second LP. Given their sudden rise to success, the Dream Syndicate probably would have dealt with a certain amount of critical backlash no matter how their sophomore effort turned out, but 1984s Medicine Show was greeted with openly hostile reviews, largely because it sounded almost nothing like the album that preceded it. Where The Days of Wine and Roses was a raw, passionate fusion of Highway 61-era Bob Dylan and the Velvet Underground at their most primal, Medicine Show sounded grand and polished, but also dusty and weathered, filled with dark, complex narratives full of bad luck and bad blood backed with booming drums and roaring guitars that were significantly more rockist than what Steve Wynn and Karl Precoda brought to their previous recordings. (The departure of original bassist Kendra Smith in favor of Dave Provost also made for a subtle but very real change in their dynamics.) It also added some very theatrical keyboards from Tom Zvoncheck, and often sounded like a conscious throwback to the classic rock era in its willingness to go for the grand gesture. Time has been kind to Medicine Show, in large part because it set the course for what would follow for both the Dream Syndicate and in Steve Wynns solo career in the strength of its film noir storytelling and more ambitious melodic structures. Most of the songs are excellent, especially "Burn," "Daddys Girl," "Armed with an Empty Gun," and the title track, while the extended guitar jam "John Coltrane Stereo Blues" would become the Dream Syndicates answer to "Sister Ray." If Pearlmans production is bulkier than it needed to be, its ambition equaled that of the songs, and four decades after the fact, its a very impressive bit of record-making and a suitably epic conclusion to Karl Precodas tenure with the Dream Syndicate. ~ Mark Deming