Geils Band is now playing and creating with great skill and passion. In parts of “Teresa” and “Sanctuary,” Geils is as much a vocal group as a rock & roll band.īecause these musicians are attempting to make music that isn’t easy to categorize, this LP has been almost ignored. At the end of “I Can’t Believe You,” Peter Wolf and Seth Justman engage in a Righteous Brothers exchange that’s powerful and pure. Geils with a vocal structure as interesting as its current instrumental approach. Wissert’s biggest achievement is providing J. The numbers here that stick closest to hardnosed R&B (”Wild Man,” “Jus’ Can’t Stop Me,” “Take It Back”) are full of his deliberate non sequiturs. But Wolf has too much feeling for street-corner vernacular to lose his wit. There’s less reliance now on the kind of silly novelties that fed all the worst impulses of both the group and its audience. What’s made Geils’ switch to a type of hard rock necessary and what’s made it possible is the development of Wolf and Justman as a songwriting team. Producer Joe Wissert has added clarity without interfering much with the band’s gut-level power. Like Bruce Springsteen’s Darkness on the Edge of Town, the new record fuses an East Coast sound with West Coast production values. Though it lacks the sense of breakthrough delivered by Geils’ original hard-rock attempt, Monkey Island, it still progresses beyond the concepts advanced there. Geils’ guitar and Magic Dick’s harmonica, while holding lead singer Peter Wolf’s tendency to mug in check.Sanctuary feels like a transitional album. Without the stylized soul covers, there’s room to incorporate elements of Motown and doowop into a more personal sound that balances Seth Justman’s keyboards against J. But that doesn’t mean the group is rootless. Geils Band has by now virtually abandoned the plundering of R&B and blues resources that were its original stock in trade.
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