Nikki Sudden & the Last Bandits: Treasure Island

Hail, hail the collective conscience! And, rock and roll, of course! After spending roughly 30 years languishing in relative obscurity, Nikki Sudden has finally been “discovered” by the music scene. In a sudden (no pun intended) outpouring of reverence for one of rock’s most colorful wallflowers, critics are declaring his latest release a shining star among his recently reissued back catalog of music. As dubious as the giddy thrill of discovery may be, few artists deserve mainstream attention so much as Sudden. His roots-rock swagger, combined with a unique and vaguely Dylan-esque lyrical wit, has inspired such indie poster bands as Pavement, REM, Sonic Youth and the Replacements. Yet Sudden’s devotion to his own rock and roll pantheon of the Stones, the Faces and T-Rex has only grown steadier with age, and his latest album is a beautiful homage to the heroic era of rock when guitar gods reigned and golden-tongued fops stalked stadium stages and into our hearts. With the help of an all-star classic-rock cast, Sudden bridges the divide between underground and mainstream rock, yielding a work that feels both classic and ultra-cool.

For some, “roots rock” means recreating old-time music to fit a nostalgic image of the past, but for Nikki Sudden and the Last Bandits, it’s about distilling rock and roll to its essence, “pirating” it, in a sense, by taking its stock vocabulary and using it for hedonistic thrills. To help him accomplish this harrowing mission, Sudden has assembled an all-star cast of some of rock’s best musicians, including former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor and The Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan. The result is an album built on a solid-gold foundation of rock’s hottest licks and raunchiest hooks. Songs like “Kitchen Blues” and “Wooden Floor” are some of the sexiest blues rock tracks on record, with Stones-influenced ax-grinding solos and smoking saxophone riffs that run roughshod over Sudden’s attempts at polite lyrical ambiguity. The Last Bandits let their softer and more genteel side show on ballads like the gospel-infused duo of “When the Lord” and “Never Let Me Go”, as the group perfectly weaves a sparse tapestry of breezy organ melodies, soaring saxophone riffs and strangely plaintive fuzz guitar solos. “Stay Bruised”, one of the album’s finest songs, is a gorgeous ballad featuring a classic piano melody and an unforgettable Dylan-inspired lyric that evokes much of the album’s appreciation for strange and complicated beauty.

Strange beauty is often an acquired taste, however, and perhaps one of the factors contributing to Sudden’s prolonged underground exile is a certain quirky taste for deadpan humor mixed with bombastic blues rock. Like many of the greatest singer-songwriters, such as Waits, Prine, Dylan and Patti Smith, Sudden displays the kind of unusual everyman vocal talent that tends to chafe on the first listen, but by the second and certainly by the third develops the feel and familiarity of an old friend, its lack of pretense a welcome release from the usual over-produced glitzy pop radio fare. Sudden’s music is more than primitivism or an anti-establishmentarian appreciation of the amateur in rock; rather, the ear is compelled by the clever juxtaposition of the nearly perfect blues rock harmonies and blistering riffs with the jaded poetry of Sudden’s lyrics. The beauty of the former enriches the latter, and Sudden’s casual embrace of the mythic diction of devilish bluesmen and howling beatniks creates a moody tension perhaps best summed up by his own lyric, “stay bruised, stay beautiful”.

Treasure Island is at times challenging, but equally rewarding to listen to, one of those gifts that keep on giving. Sudden and the Last Bandits embrace a musical style and pathos that is truly unique and yet broadly applicable, as his songs swagger from country rock, urban blues, folk rock, and indie grunge to ballads both bombastic and enchanting.