Perhaps owing to his experience with writing film scores, many of
Barry Adamson's solo albums suggest soundtracks to movies that exist only in his mind. Since it runs a mere 25 minutes,
Adamson's 2017 EP
Love Sick Dick falls into a somewhat different category -- it appears to be the music for the premiere episode of a nonexistent cable TV series
Adamson has dreamed up. Built around moody but upbeat dance tracks with a tough, organic feel,
Love Sick Dick can be read as six chapters in the life of a rough-and-tumble kid who likes to go clubbing when he isn't getting himself in some sort of trouble and turning to his mom for help.
Adamson is an expert one-man band with decades of studio experience, and as the headliner, he writes, plays, produces, and sings everything here. The pulse of these songs is strong and muscular but with an engaging fluidity even as the music calls up a kitchen-sink mood.
Adamson's proven studio expertise is evident here in the sure hand of these tracks, but this music sounds and feels fresh and up to date, full of energy while also loaded with smarts, skill, and attitude. If
Love Sick Dick is the background to a TV show that doesn't exist, the music is strong enough that perhaps some smart producer should team up with
Adamson to make it a reality. At very least, we'd get Love Sick Dick 2 as our reward. ~ Mark Deming