Albert Collins: Trash Talkin'

ALBERT COLLINS: TRASH TALKIN' (1969)

1) Harris County Line-Up; 2) Conversation With Collins; 3) Jawing; 4) Grapeland Gossip; 5) Chatterbox; 6) Trash Talkin'; 7) Baby What You Want Me To Do/Rock Me Baby; 8) Lip Service; 9) Things That I Used To Do; 10) Back Yard Back Talk; 11) Tongue Lashing; 12) And Then It Started Raining.

Another smooth release, predictably arse-kicking in the same old ways, but this time, without any­thing truly sticking out like 'Do The Sissy'. Albert certainly spreads out here: sequence-wise, the album is impeccable, with similar-sounding numbers stuck far apart from each other, so that even if there are now two slow generic 12-bar blues, by the time you get to the second one, you already have all the luck to forget about the first one. And even then, they're different: 'Conversa­tion With Collins' has full emphasis on Albert's guitar (and vocal) skills, whereas 'Things That I Used To Do' gets a full-on brass arrangement.

Other than that, there is some lively, upbeat Texan boogie ('Harris County Line-Up', 'Grapeland Gossip', title track); a couple more funk experiments, this time with somewhat deeper and darker moods ('Jawing', 'Lip Service'); a few patches of gritty blues-rock ('Chatterbox'; a cover of Jimmy Reed's 'Baby What You Want Me To Do' that sounds every bit as stoned as the original, except Albert clearly has more teeth than Reed has ever had, and I mean literally); some old school R'n'B on which Albert does battle with his brass section ('Back Yard Back Talk', 'Tongue Lash­ing'), and even some sort of spiritual-sentimental roots-rock thing that could have been recorded by the likes of The Band as a warm-up for something more serious ('And Then It Started Raining') — in any case, it's a nice moody finish, and Bob Dylan himself provides harmonica. Or, to be more accurate, someone who must have taken virtual lessons from Bob Dylan.

In all, just another OK album from an era that, honestly, had a larger percentage share of OK albums than any other one I know of. Not to be bought separately, but perfectly fitting in the middle of the 2-CD Imperial Recordings collection.