Rob Dickinson - Fresh Wine For The Horses Review
Posted by Dan Marsicano on 08.23.2008
Former Catherine Wheel vocalist/guitarist Rob Dickinson has re-released his debut album, Fresh Wine For The Horses, with a bonus disc included. Does Dickinson's debut impress for the second straight time?
The Band
Rob Dickinson-Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Drums, Piano, Organ
David Rolfe-Bass, Guitar, Drums, Piano
(Note: Other musicians involved as well, but it changes from track to track. Dickinson and Rolfe were the only consistent musicians.)
The Track Listing
1. My Name Is Love-4:02
2. Oceans-4:20
3. The End Of The World-5:15
4. Bathe Away-3:31
5. Intelligent People-4:52
6. The Storm-3:37
7. Handsome-4:54
8. Bad Beauty-5:22
9. Towering & Flowering-4:38
10. The Night-4:33
11. Don’t Change-5:47
12. Mutineer-1:57
The Review
In the 1990’s, there was a UK alternative rock/grunge band by the name of Catherine Wheel. A huge hit in the UK, the band would get an underground following in the US. Songs like “Black Metallic” and “Crank” would become huge hits for the quintet and for a decade, they released quality album after quality album. In 2000, Catherine Wheel broke up and the band members went their separate ways.
Vocalist/guitarist Rob Dickinson took all the material he wrote during his time in Catherine Wheel and worked on it for years, writing new songs and putting all the pieces together. The end result was 2005’s Fresh Wine For The Horses. A departure from the rougher sound of Catherine Wheel, Fresh Wine For The Horses was a melodic and acoustic-heavy album that only featured a few sparks of the old Catherine Wheel sound.
Three years later, Fresh Wine For The Horses has been re-released with a new track listing, another song, and a bonus CD, Nude, featuring stripped-down versions of Catherine Wheel tracks. While released to little fanfare in 2005, save for die-hard Catherine Wheel fans, will the 2008 re-release finally get Dickinson’s name out in the general public?
It is evident from the first track, “My Name Is Love,” that Dickinson is trying to push the emotional buttons as high as they can go. His vocals are radiant and full of high falsettos that tear into the tubes of your heart. The opening track is the anthem of the album, Dickinson’s declaration that he is here to let it all out on the table. Dickinson is a talented musician, judging by the fact that he plays multiple instruments on most of the tracks. Strings are used sparingly to augment the heightened mood, something Dickinson would use several times later on in Fresh Wine For The Horses.
The first half of the album keeps the electric instruments to a minimum, focusing more on an acoustic/piano/strings combination. “The End Of The World” is an immediate highlight, with Dickinson’s heavy-handed vocal performance perfectly setting a depressing mood. The title isn’t just a play on words; Dickinson croons about the end of existence and trying to make that special someone blissful one last time. “On our last few drags of air, we agreed, that I was, and you were, happy” is a perfect ending to the epic track. “Intelligent People” suffers from a mediocre chorus (“It’s time for you to smile and hang out with intelligent people”) and a Coldplay-ish melody, but Dickinson’s conviction helps to pick the track up.
The second half turns the aggression up a bit, as Dickinson brings some 90’s alternative influences into his songwriting. “Bathe Away” and “Towering and Flowering” both have a slow grind to them, sounding like the bastard child of Beck and Nine Inch Nails. Dickinson sings with a creepy tone, especially in the chorus, and shows a different side of the singer. “Handsome” picks the pace up past mid-tempo, being the heaviest song on the album, and one that sounds like it could have been on Happy Days. The thing is, the song is quite deceiving, starting with a slow acoustic and organ combination. “Handsome” slowly builds into a monster of an alternative rock track and is another instant highlight on Fresh Wine For The Horses
The re-release of Fresh Wine For The Horses has a bonus disc along with it, Nude. Composed of six Catherine Wheel tracks, Dickinson take them and strips them down to the bare essence, turning tracks like the epic “Black Metallic” into a five minute acoustic diddy that may surprise long-time fans. Dickinson knows these tracks inside and out, which makes the proceedings a lot easier to handle. The dark vibes of the original tracks is still present, attributed to Dickinson’s ever-increasing skills as a musician.
Rob Dickinson surrounded himself with talented musicians, including David Rolfe, Greg Collins, and Paul Umbach. This is the Rob Dickinson show though; he plays a majority of the instruments on the album. He also produces most of the tracks, along with David Rolfe, and everything sounds great, especially when the aggression is turned up quite a bit. The electric guitar has a bite to them, one that will immediately stand out to the listener.
Catherine Wheel fans probably already have this album when it was released in 2005. Is the re-release worth it? If you can’t get enough of Dickinson, you will enjoy the bonus track, “The End Of The World,” and the extra disc of acoustic Catherine Wheel tracks. If you haven’t ever heard of Catherine Wheel before, you will still find a lot to like about Fresh Wine For The Horses. My only major complaint is the lackluster lyrics in a few of the early tracks and the anti-climatic closer “Mutineer.” On the original release, “Towering & Flowering” was the closer, which would have made more sense. Barring those complaints, Fresh Wine For The Horses shows a different side of Rob Dickinson, one that will appeal to fans of acoustic rock with an occasional edge to it.
The 411: Even after three years, Fresh Wine For The Horses is a solid debut that shows that Dickinson can have a successful career beyond his old band. While the lyrics leave something to be desired at times, and Dickinson's vocals can be gratingly over-emotional on a few tracks, the songwriting is there and Dickinson uses his years in Catherine Wheel to piece together a good album. The future looks bright for the British songwriter, and fans of Catherine Wheel who haven't heard Fresh Wine For The Horses would be wise to pick up the re-release, as it also includes acoustic versions of classic Catherine Wheel tracks, which are given a darker tone than the studio versions.
