Gene Clark - White Light

White Light

If you want my consumer advice, get this before it reaches the "limited availablity" status of NO OTHER. Though more laid back in terms of production, WHITE LIGHT remains one of Gene Clark's most signifigant releases. If you're into Graham Parsons, Townes Van Zandt or Neil Young, Gene Clark's right up your alley. As his work with the Byrds goes to show, he had the uncanny ability to write a great pop melody, off-set by an inescapable sense of longing and melancholy. In a way, he's a bit like a country-fied Nick Drake. Much like Drake and the very early Tom Waits, he seems to have strived to establish a particular mood in his solo work. A kind of opiate feel, complimented by a set of baroquely reflective lyrics. The end result is an album of slow burning intensity. "Spanish Guitar" is a prime example, a song Dylan professed a great admiration for. Another gem is "With Tomorrow" with the haunting opening line, "it was more like a dream than reality"---a phrase that perfectly captures the tone of this album.
The bonus tracks are a real plus. "Opening Day" is particularly notable and one couldn't ask for a better closer with, "Winter In". Like so many songs on this album, it's guilty of infectiously lazy hooks and baffling, evocative verse.
Though released at the height of the Hippie Era, Clark was a shade or two darker than his contemporaries. All of which may account for his lack of commercial appeal. Sure, he should have been huge, but in the end what can you do but write a good review some 30 years later? Fortunately, the music's still around and currently gaining rapid cult status thanks to a roster of fickle critics, and a few hard working musicians who took the time out to drop his name.
Still it's a shame NO OTHER is available only on import while Clark's last full-length solo album languishes out of print. In lieu of the compilation FLYING HIGH and the tribute, FULL CIRCLE, I would heartily recommend WHITE LIGHT and THE FANTASTIC EXPEDITION OF DILLARD & CLARK instead. Not to mention the desperately epic, NO OTHER. That should be enough to make you cross your fingers for the eventual reissue of this album I keep hearing about. I'm not sure of the title, but I think it's called,TWO SIDES TO EVERY STORY.