There's nothing trendy about Carleton's home tapes, even in the lo-fi world. This is not lo-fi in a sense that makes it hard to listen to: songs start and end abruptly with no pauses between the tracks, and there's a lot of hiss (which gets covered up anyway once the songs get underway). The music is tuneful, personal, folky rock, with a likably grainy, yearning quality to the vocals. Lyrics have a plaintive, hopeful quality, and are slightly eccentric: what is one to make, for instance, of the line "Some men do it in churches, some men do it by tearing butterflies in half"? This tape could benefit from better production, but maybe not; in the climate of 1987, it's hard to imagine a record label getting hold of this material without trying to sand it down to normal pop, instead of concentrating on making the performances and arrangements a little tighter. Between a Rock and a Hard Place was issued on CD in 2000 -- in somewhat better fidelity, with pauses between the tracks -- on Green Light, available through www.dennycarleton.com.
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