Ginger Wildheart: 100%
From a recent issue of Record Collector.
Unable to secure funding for a proposed triple album, Wildhearts figurehead Ginger turned to crowd-funding in a final attempt to make it happen. The reaction was extraordinary. At the time of writing, the project had landed 583% of its target figure. While the full project will be available exclusively to those who pledged in advance, fans voted for their favourite twelve tracks which feature on 100% – a single CD compilation of the triple album’s highlights.
The first half of 100% veers towards Ginger’s prime strengths: somewhere between the less aggressive side of The Wildhearts and mid-paced pop-rock that breaks no new ground but has too much quality to be dismissed as the cheapest trick of all. The remainder sees Ginger’s experimentation come to the fore with lurching Eighties funk and jaunty reggae rhythms offering different sonic shakes. Perhaps ironically, the album’s highlight Time is one of the few that melds both approaches as a recurring Mott The Hoople-styled motif is punctuated with jarring time signatures and bursts of vehement riffing.
Musically, 100% is almost entirely a success, but as a product it’s close to immediately redundant. Surely any halfway committed fan will have already pre-ordered the full package?
