World Party :: Private Revolution
Photo: Steve Wallace assisted by Mathew Stevens
Photo: Neil Mackenzie Matthews
As I sit down to write this, I was motivated earlier this week to try to connect with the legend behind World Party, Karl Wallinger, who was also a critical member of the British and Irish folk-rock band led by Mike Scott, The Waterboys. I had stumbled upon his first record, “Private Revolution”, at a local thrift store pretending to be a record store, but with the inflated prices of an overjoyous Discogs seller who obviously just got into it for the sheer reason of calling it “vintage vinyl”. You know the type, they think every Led Zeppelin or Ozzy Osbourne album is worth a standard of forty dollars. Anyway, it immediately gave me that wonderful New Wave feeling of never-ending nostalgia, and the radical rhythms of longing youth. While inquiring into Wallinger, I was informed by his team that he had passed away due to a stroke a few years ago in Hastings, England, at the young age of 66. I’m sure this has happened to several other writers, or newly established fans, over the years when setting out on a particular interest in an artist or an iconic individual for historical research or poetic pleasure, only to discover they’ve recently passed. I knew of The Waterboys, in particular their hyper hit “The Whole of the Moon”, but was completely unaware of the band’s multi-instrumentalist secret weapon, who joined the already eagerly established outfit in the summer of 1983 before departing sometime in the winter of 1985. Eventually breaking off to form his own band, World Party, Wallinger communicated a critically cool language within his multi-faceted project, and has since secured a poetic place among his prolific peers and harmonious heroes like the Beatles and Bob Dylan.
That introduction may have been long-winded and out of context regarding this review of the group’s 1986 debut album “Private Revolution”. Still, sometimes it’s nice to express the events surrounding the effort when setting out to write about a certain album or artist, but I digress. Recorded between January and March of 1986 at Studio Baby'O Recorders in Hollywood, California, and released almost exactly a year later, World Party was entirely on the sonic shoulders of Wallinger at this point. Having produced the record himself, the late musician delved deep into his retro revelation of becoming the songwriter he always envisioned, and “Private Revolution” is a brilliant introduction to his sonic spiritualism and Welsh-British brilliance. While simultaneously displaying the soft melodies of the time, Wallinger summons a critical cast of musicians, including the late great Sinéad O'Connor, Steve Wickham, and the co-founder of The Waterboys, Anthony “Anto” Thistlethwaite, to help bring this particular body of work to life. Similar to the whispering winds of his contemporaries, like Nick Lowe, The Call, Lloyd Cole, and Trashcan Sinatras, to name a few, World Party sophistically solidified the ongoing retreat into the harmonies of the heart by clipping those soft strings that connect us to the past by bringing listeners into the present moment, no matter how potentially painful or intimidating it may seem. While weird sunsets simmer in the distance, tracks like"Ship of Fools", “Hawaiian Island World", "World Party", the album’s incredible title track, and a calcified cover of a Dylan classic, “All I Really Want To Do”, Wallinger intrigues his audience with the precise Prince-influenced themes of tonal timing and rhythmic romanticism. Having coincided with the late musician signing a deal with the late great Prince’s longtime manager, Steve Fargnol, Wallinger connected his harmonious heroes with the poetic present by sourcing material deep within the creative confines of his polished psyche.
