Eugene Ripper
The Ballad of Black
(Divine Industries)
Eugene Ripper, former member of The Fleshtones, imports the bashing fist and gnashing teeth of punk to his folk, but he ruins it with forays into noir, thriller narratives. So you get two great tunes off the top in “Thought I Saw Her” and “Lines,” but then you’ve got to live through “Hangman,” “Bad Bad Day” and, well, a couple more. With “Around Sundown,” Ripper picks it back up, proving that he’s best when he’s being Eugene Ripper, not Elmore Leonard with a guitar.
—Sean Flinn
This article appears in Dec 6-12, 2007.
