Party Political Broadcast On Behalf Of The Emotional Party

If Head Like a Rock was Ian McNabb's homage to Neil Young & Crazy Horse, here's his tribute to the sound of Young without the Horse. Not quite an "Unplugged" album (there are electric guitars on several tracks), at its best the drummerless A Party Political Broadcast on Behalf of the Emotional Party still has the laid-back, intimate charm of an all-acoustic Young recording like, say, Harvest Moon. Unfortunately, some of the material on Party Political would be better suited to a full-bore rock treatment -- witness the difference between the somewhat lethargic, under-arranged version of "Liverpool Girl" offered up here versus the stomping, anthemic take McNabb released a few years later on his self-titled release of 2001. However, on the majority of Party Political's tracks, the songs do match up with their stripped-down arrangements; this is especially true of the album's many ballads, as well as the spacy, slightly funky "Little Princess" and the funny and well-observed opening track, "Sex With Someone You Love" (and yes, that song title is a Woody Allen reference). While not quite at the level of the Icicle Works' debut album or his previous solo outing, Merseybeast, Party Political ends up being a solid, if uncharacteristically mellow, addition to McNabb's fine catalog of work. ~ Rudyard Kennedy|