London
PS-964
1977
If Wishes Were Horses cannot escape the unmistakable influence of
hot child Nick Gilder and his trusty sidekick James McCulloch,
who acrimoniously split for the City of Angels after writing the
doomed single "Roxy Roller" on the first Sweeney Todd. Enter a
certain sixteen year-old named Bryan Guy Adams, mimicking the
gilded genius down to the last note and pushing this rocky choral
show all the way over the top. Except for stellar opener
"Tantalize" and bizarre Berlin finale "Say Hello Say Goodbye,"
Gilder is gone (Sweeney Todd gives him a snide send-off in
"Song for a Star"). Throughout the remainder of this grand and
cosmic obscurity, Adams croons (the title track, written by the
band's manager) and moons ("Until I Find You"), but never shuts
up until "All of a Sudden," a mesmerizing instrumental,
materializes out of nowhere. With the greatest of ease, Bryan the
boy wonder spreads Gilder's glittering gospel of pixie-dust and back-stage-biz with more helium and heady Mercury bombast than
anywhere in his homogenized solo work, even sliding in some sexual
shenanigans ("Pushin' & Shovin'"), resulting in a theatrical
touch of magic sure to make you sigh.
-STONE, Cheap Trash NYC
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