Calling Tonio K's Romeo Unchained a crossover album
is one of the great preposterous blunders in rock
music history. Even the Christians didn't buy it.
The only even slight reference to God of any kind
or religion is on the last song, an acoustic closer
with his bud T-Bone Burnett on guitar.
What this really is though is a fine collection
of prolifically written tunes from the man
we've come to expect that from. This is one
of his best and while sounding a tad dated,
when this sucker came out, they were using
the best and most sophisticated sequencers
around which was the rage that year.
Most of the songs stick to the romantic and
romantic loss matters and stuck in the middle
as side 2 opener is a great Tonio K rocker
that had history long before this album going
back to his early days. It's classic cynical stuff
from my man Steve as he makes his declaration
to the world about the circus freak people we
meet in the music business, it's called
I Handle Snakes, ya dig? The Horror!!
The Absolute Horror!!
