Tim Robbins And TheRogues Gallery - TimRobbins And The RoguesGallery

Thu 11th Nov, 2010 in Music Reviews

First of all, yes, it’s that Tim Robbins – Hollywood actor, Oscar winner, former long-term partner of Susan Sarandon. And no, I didn’t know he could sing either, until I saw him perform as part of the Rogues’ Gallery concert during the Sydney Festival in January. He’s gathered much of the house band from that same event to help put together his debut album, at the age of 51, and there is a definite air of sea shanty around it.

Of course, saying that Robbins can sing is a bit generous. He certainly can’t sing in the Jeff Buckley, four-octave range sense. In fact, he doesn’t really have much of a voice at all. But what he can do is express tremendous emotion with his voice, and it probably helps to think of each individual song as a different role, with its own emotional range, its own character, and its own self-contained little world.

Unfortunately, the self-contained worlds that much of the album exists in is hugely dull. Too many songs here are slow-paced and over-burdened by imagery, and they rely far too much on Robbins’ voice which, really, isn’t up to it. There are a couple that succeed more than others – Moment In The Sun works better than most, and Crush on You is a lovely little song, helped tremendously by some perfectly applied guitar and a saw wailing away in the background. In fact, it’s only when you read the lyrics that you realise the song is a murder ballad, with the love of this man’s life putting a ‘serrated’ hole in the man’s skull.

But the best moment on the album is Time To Kill, a song full of menace and fury, with Robbins sounding for all the world like Nick Cave. With a dobro steel guitar flanging away in the background, Robbins tells a tale of a soldier returned from war, profoundly changed by his experiences. His seething rage is perfectly conveyed by the combination of guitar and incessant drums, and Robbins perfectly captures both his anger and his misery. It’s really the only time that the album gets out of first gear, which is a damn shame considering how terrific it is in comparison.