Lost/Forgotten Album #423

[Jon]

Who? Greg Kihn

When? 1978

Album title? Next Of Kihn

Allmusic.com review? Yes (and totally wrong).

The third album by the Greg Kihn Band (not counting their split live album with Beserkley labelmates the Rubinoos) is the first where Kihn assumes all songwriting duties. Normally, this would be a good thing, but Next of Kihn explains why his earlier albums had so many covers on them. At eight songs in barely half an hour, Next of Kihn is unforgivably skimpy on both time and content. Too many of the songs are needlessly elongated to pad the album out to a reasonable length, thereby robbing them of their power; at under four minutes, the hypnotic "Remember" would be a groovy, atmospheric slice of neo-psychedelia, but at six-and-a-half, it's just tiresome. It's not a coincidence that the best song on side two, the winsomely jangly "Sorry," is the only one that doesn't hover around the six-minute mark. Had Kihn thrown in a well-chosen cover or two that allowed his originals to come in around three minutes each, Next of Kihn would be a '70s power pop gem. As it stands, it's bloated and disappointing.

Next Of Kihn

1. Cold Hard Cash
2. Museum
3. Remember
4. Chinatown
5. Sorry
6. Everybody Else
7. Understander
8. Secret Meetings

Availability: CD is OOP and fetching over $360. There are vinyl versions available for less than $10 though.

[Scott]

Happy Thanksgiving-ING-INg-Ing-ing-ng-g

It's like I clicked the playlist and then it was over!  Certainly a quick listen.  The review is correct only with the fact that this too short of an album.  Feels more like an EP.  But the only track that felt like a miss was #6 - Everybody Else - otherwise this was witty, innovative (for the time) and fun.  I would like to pick this up but at $360 it's about about 350 more than I would pay, so until Podsnack eats itself I have this to listen to at least, though I'm sure it can be found on YouTube at questionable and varying qualities...