WILT’S Cormac Battle is a man familiar with being prematurely written off, not least since his previous outfit KERBDOG were torn asunder in the major label rapids and he was left to ponder the circumstances and struggle to stave off a breakdown.
Lesser men would have crumbled against such odds, but Battle (an appropriate surname, if ever there was) patched himself up and launched WILT, whose 2000 debut LP, “Bastinado” showed there was life in the Kilkenny cat(s) yet.
“Take Me Home” and its’ attendant tracks, “Tell You Too Much” and “Bad Penny” – are the first fruits of WILT’S recent sessions with MANICS/ IDLEWILD desk guru Dave Eringa and prove conclusively that whatever KERBDOG’S failings, WILT deserve far better than being eternally damned as “NIRVANA lite” or some such spurious production-line epithet.
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Indeed this is a tight, aggressive 3-track affair. Although heralded by a loop not dissimilar to U2’s “Discotheque”, “Take Me Home” is economic, brooding and passionate, with Battle spluttering out words of defiance over seething guitars. “Tell You Too Much” is no slouch either, but “Penny Black” is probably the best track: a smart pop (yeah!) song that truly explodes at the chorus.
Having already spent too long in the wilderness, “Take Me Home” suggests Cormac Battle really might be ready to come in from the cold. Let’s hope so.
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