While this album will always be remembered for its one novelty hit, Mood Swing is a remarkably consistent and confident debut. The band sounds a bit like a cross between the Damned and Jim Carroll in their best moments, with all that implies -- powerful musicianship, dark and occasionally shocking lyrics leavened with a sense of humor, and a powerful frontman. Marc Campbell is certainly that, his huge baritone voice going from a tense whisper to a tuneful bellow and sounding great all the way through. There is a touch of Wall of Voodoo's Stan Ridgway in his occasional ironic phrasings, including the gleeful "Let It All Hang Out" and "88 Lines About 44 Women." The latter is, of course, the song that brought the Nails their moment of fame and airplay, but it is by no means typical of the rest of this album, or anything else the band ever did. A better example would be "Every Time I Touch You," a riveting song about being lost in a mix of love an lust, or "Home of the Brave," a surreal paean on the hectic madness of city living. The Nails were an uncommonly sophisticated rock band with a rollicking brass backup and an extraordinarily talented singer and lyricist, and on this album they got everything right.
© Richard Foss /TiVo