Album Review: Gilby Clarke - The Gospel Truth

To borrow the title phrase of this album, here is the gospel truth; Gilby Clarke is mostly only famous for being a replacement. His stint in Guns N Roses produces no music Gilby was a part of creating, and his solo career hasn't been much more impressive. In fact, this is his first solo album in nearly twenty years. For a guy who has created so little, it's amazing he still has the degree of profile he does. It's amazing what tying yourself to something famous can do for your life.

That being said, I do remember his old song, "Cure Me Or Kill Me", and consider it to have one of my favorite guitar riffs, so maybe after all this time Gilby has something worth saying.

The promise of "fist-jacking rock 'n' roll songs with fat choruses" sounds great, but I'm not really sure what they mean by it. The opening title track is not a song that gets my fist in the air. The riff doesn't really bite, and the horns that punctuate it point to a different time period than what the rest of the song does, but the real problem is the lack of a "fat chorus". Gilby delivers many of his vocals through a distorted filter, and then the chorus itself flatly intones simple lines that don't have a snappy melody to them. It's classic in the sense of being old-school, but it's the parts of the past I think we've learned to move beyond.

"Wayfarer" continues the lethargy. It tries to ride a groove, but it's too slow a pace to have much sway. Likewise, the guitar tones sound weak, or perhaps it's Gilby's playing not putting the hammer down. The solo doesn't sear, it sounds tired, like a player going through the motions of playing a song for the fiftieth time in the studio. The entire record is steeped in that sense of boredom. None of the playing or singing sounds passionate. It almost sounds like Gilby doesn't care about these songs, which makes it impossible for me to give more of a damn than he does.

Gilby sings about seeing "rock and roll is still alive", but it's hard to know that from this album. Rock of this sort is about energy, and there isn't any to be found here. With the lackadaisical playing, and Gilby's dispassionate singing, it almost sounds as if the entire album is an old rock record being played back on the wrong speed. Maybe speeding up the record would make it sound better, but that's not the way these songs are presented to us. After twenty years, this can't be the best Gilby can come up with.

Look, not everyone who is in a band, no matter how big or how great they may be, is capable of doing it on their own. There are plenty of musicians who are great sidemen, who are perfect to help bring someone else's creative vision to life. That's who Gilby Clarke is. He's a solid guitar player who can fill in wherever he's needed, but he is no great songwriter. This record sounds like what you would expect from a band member who never got the chance to write songs for his main gig. There's usually a reason for it, and sadly, that's the gospel truth.