Anatomy by Stan Ridgway

Stan Ridgway
"Anatomy"
A440 Records

"One of the most unique, if misunderstood, talents to emerge from the vaunted 1980s Los Angeles punk/new-wave era, Stan Ridgway arguably owes more than most to the art-rock and modern jazz which crucially informed that scene. He's shrugged off MTV's stereotyping of his former band Wall of Voodoo to forge a rich, if stubbornly independent, body of solo work, freely retooling his sound and viewpoint along the way. Black Diamond, his 1995 outing (and one of the best, if sorely underappreciated, singer-songwriter albums of the '90s) placed Ridgway in a spare acoustic setting far removed the propulsive synth-sense of The Big Heat, his expressive baritone taking on a new warmth and range. Anatomy is an attempt to move both forward and reconcile the various aspects of his previous work. The stirring, elegiac opener "Mission Bell" adds depth and dimension to Black Diamond's tack, while "Train of Thought," "Susie Before Sunrise," and "Valerie is Sleeping" supplant Ridgway's trademark seamy-side-of-life storytelling with more personal--if oblique--observations, set with confidence against music that freely mixes electronics, acoustic guitar, and his plaintive harmonica. Three surprisingly varied instrumentals cue listeners that Ridgway now splits his time between songwriting and film scoring. Ridgway is a true musical rebel, but one with a rich sense of history and no time for the cheap encumbrances of fashion." --Jerry McCulley

Here's what critics are saying about Stan Ridgway..........

Ridgway's post-Wall of Voodoo output has, if anything, cemented his neo-noir rep as one of American music's greatest storytellers, the wild and wily Steinbeck of sad whiskey railroads and rusted, ramshackle American dreams." AUSTIN CHRONICLE

"Neon Mirage, is arguably the most emotionally revealing, musically far-ranging album of the L.A. singer-songwriter's accomplished career." AMAZON

"Listening to Stan Ridgway is always like a musical voyage. As he sings about "your presence in the sand" there's no wonder you'll see a Neon Mirage in the distance. With help from Dave Alvin, Pietra Wexstun, Ralph Carney, Rick King and the late Amy Farris, every lick, note and lyric is post-futuristic and brings to mind the world we're busy ripping apart now. Neon Mirage is without a doubt, Ridgway's strongest effort in years, and one that finds him saddled up and ready to ride with a world-wise bent into the sunset of the unknown - mirage or not. Challenging, interesting, and always highly entertaining. This particular well is long from drying up." ELMORE

"Ridgway's work is always passionate and completely compelling and Neon Mirage is no exception...Stan Ridgway at his quixotic best, telling jagged tales of modern life gone wrong with a casual urgency and a novelist's eye for detail, all set to a soundtrack that soaks up light in a beautiful darkness like polished ebony." CITY BEAT

"Rueful reflections from one time Wall Of Voodoo singer. Mortality and the absurdity of human existence are among the thematic strands running through Ridgway's new Neon Mirage, a dazzling effort that takes its place among autumnal efforts by Zevon, Krisofferson and Dylan. A stately grappling with identity and meaning." UK UNCUT

"Stan Ridgway's Neon Mirage is arguably the most emotionally revealing, musically far-ranging album of the L.A. singer-songwriter's accomplished career." AMAZON

Probably the most compelling portrait of American social life to appear on a rock 'n' roll record since Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska." "The Big Heat" (1986) Greil Marcus in ART FORUM

"Take some of the nocturnal knowledge inherent to Los Angeles that Jim Morrison so famously tapped, add a bit of Dean Martin's way cool swing-a-ding-ding...and you'd be getting close to the subliminal wow of Stan Ridgway. ..It's a completely stunning work, full of strengths and surprises that even while we've come to expect them from Ridgway, they still ring home here with an inescapable heart.. and the world it describes and lessons it imparts are the kind that are downright prophetic." BENTLEY'S BANDSTAND

Wall of Voodoo leader Stan Ridgway is in a reflective mood on "Neon Mirage" one of the finest outings in his idiosyncratic career. Featuring the outstanding roots rocker Dave Alvin and prized session violinist Amy Farris, Ridgway looks for permanence in a forever-changing world. DETROIT FREE PRESS

"In a career that's found him consistently attempting to defy any and all pop parameters, Stan Ridgway's never faltered when it comes to revealing his more exotic intentions. He showed that inclination early on with Wall Of Voodoo, and subsequently pursued it through the retro jazz affectations, dark cinematic-like musings and scary film scores that have become so intrinsic to his solo ambitions. Neon Mirage shines a new light on Ridgway's inner psyche, while also inviting his listeners to fearlessly peer inside. " BLURT

"It's been over 25 years since Stan Ridgway and L.A.'s seminal Wall of Voodoo released Call of the West, and that calls for a drink. The album's dusty, Barstow-to-Bakersfield, Ross Macdonald-meets-Edward G. Ulmer in a Death Valley Detour to nowheresville title track and grimly optimistic film noir narratives still reverberate across the musical Route 66 Voodoo frontman Stan Ridgway paved, roadkill and all..." Ridgway's post-Wall of Voodoo output has, if anything, cemented his neo-noir rep as one of American music's greatest storytellers, the wild and wily Steinbeck of sad whiskey railroads and rusted, ramshackle American dreams." AUSTIN CHRONICLE

"Singer/songwriter Stan Ridgway's new solo album is a glorious hard-boiled Hollywood road movie for the ears. " THE WIRE

Ridgway has become his own wireless theater. Spanning nearly 30 years in song, master storyteller Ridgway pulls out new and old work to dazzling effect. MUSICMUSE

"Stan Ridgway is a brilliant iconoclast with a catalog as strong as that of any more famous songwriter you'd care to name with terrific solo records like Snakebite, Anatomy, The Big Heat, Black Diamond, Partyball and Mosquitoes and more. Thoughtful and mature, the new Neon Mirage is a rich palette of colors, provided by his keyboardist Pietra Wexstun, longtime guitarist Rick King, woodwind maestro Ralph Carney, and the late great Amy Farris on violin and viola. A song cycle inspired as much by loss as by living, Neon Mirage strips his signature sound down to the bare essentials, while still remaining as eclectic as always. The tunes in turn act as windows into Ridgway's soul, a view he's rarely offered before – even if the curtains aren't all the way open...With voyages into territories old and new, Neon Mirage is one of the best albums in Ridgway's long, auspicious career." THE BIG TAKEOVER

"In fact he's an ingenious writer with a grip on low - life imagery that hearkens back to that of Burroughs, Bukowski and Brecht. If a modern American counterpart to Bertol Brecht's collaborations with Kurt Weil exits, it's the music of Stan Ridgway." SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

"Some know him just as the long lost singer with the great Wall Of Voodoo, others as one of the great unsung maverick geniuses of our time." MELODY MAKER

"For Stan Ridgway life is like an old detective movie, full of furtive con men and tough dames who hide their daily crimes in the gray mist of the city. This is mature music, short on sentimentality, long on imagination and style." PEOPLE MAGAZINE

"Stan Ridgway has a cast of thousands at his fingertips, and a wealth of tales in his head. A rare and famous talent. Not part of any club or click, just a maverick in his own right." LONDON MIDWEEK

"Stan Ridgway is one of the most unique and talented songwriters around." RECORD MIRROR

"Haunted by America's pulp serial past, Stan Ridgway has become his own wireless theater." THE FACE

"Stan Ridgway is equal parts Raymond Chandler and John Huston, Johnny Cash and Rod Serling." NME

"Filtered through his sardonically insightful wit, these stories become engaging not only for the details he includes, but the ones he chooses not to expose as well." THE AUSTIN CHRONICLE

"Stan Ridgway tells stories from the underside of America. It's the dream gone sour; the dream that never even took root. Tales of losers who battle on and play the game their own way, with a glamour-less beauty and a bath of realism... slices of lives that knew the rules have been drawn up 'someplace else'; characters that have to bluff to get by." FOLLOW MUSIC AUSTRALIA

"Fast moving novellas full of dense musical imagery, peopled with characters from a human highway 61 revisited." THE FACE

"More noises from America's lost frontier. His songs tell stories that unfold gradually and trade in old fashioned narrative devices like character and suspense. It's a move at once conservative and daring - but, best of all, it works." ROLLING STONE

"Stan Ridgway is the Nathaniel West of rock." LA WEEKLY

"Ridgway has the talent to hold your attention by telling a tale in the same intense and clear way that rockers like Neil Young and Lou Reed do. A cool Californian commentator with a sense of humor to match his sense of history." Q MAGAZINE

"Ridgway's tales of the sad, soft underbelly of the American Dream are songs of hope petering into resignation, of idealism soured into cynicism; he's a very adult writer operating in an arena more usually home to the naive and infantile." THE INDEPENDENTS

"If David Lynch were a musician, he would be Stan Ridgway. Both look at Leave It To Beaver America and see serial killers lurking beneath its porches. Both can infuse a simple everyday object with weirdness and dread, creating a world that's consistently disturbing, fascinating and cool." L.A. WEEKLY

"Its possible that Ridgway's change of stance reflects a more serious attitude toward his music. Ridgway isn't just a wise guy anymore." L.A. TIMES

Tracklist

1.	Mission Bell	5:02

2.	Deep Blue Polka Dot	4:38

3.	Train Of Thought	4:14

4.	Murray's Steakhouse Story	1:06

5.	Susie Before Sunrise	4:02

6.	Sweet Pig Alley	1:13

7.	Valarie Is Sleeping	3:03

8.	Mickey The Priest	2:18

9.	Mama Had A Stove	3:39

10.	Whistle For Louise	4:26

11.	Picasso's Tear	4:17

12.	Sixteen Tons	6:48

Credits

released December 6, 2016

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