J. Geils Band

In 1981, there was no bigger band than J. Geils. Powered by "Centerfold," the timeless ode to girls wearing tight sweaters, and the cruelly catchy title cut, J. Geils Band had teenagers across America wearing scoop-necked jerseys and singing doo-wop, thanks to this album. For the uninitiated, "Piss On The Wall" sums up why J. Geils was great. Or at least pretty good.

Ever since their early greaser days, when they were spitting out hard-boiled cover
versions of tunes by the Miracles and John Lee Hooker, the J. Geils Band were also
creating incendiary originals based on the lessons of Motown soul and electric Chicago
blues. Such songs were ignited by the group's adventurous spirit and wild-party
enthusiasm. Singer Peter Wolf's mighty mouth, guitarist J. Geils' bull's-eye licks a... More >

For me, their best since Monkey Island if not the debut divides neatly into three groups of three: slick get-me-off trash (hit single plus two music-as-escape songs), slick get-'em-off trash (opener, closer, and "Angel in Blue," a whore with a heart of brass that I'm just a sucker for), and slick get-offa-me trash (two throwaways at the end of side one plus "River Blindness," a more pretentious try at "Monkey Island," that album's sole bumout). If you're discovering the great audience these days it might even change your life for a month. But I guarantee you it didn't change the band's. (Grade - B+)