I really love Dillon Fence's 1993 album "Outside In". I remember seeing an advert for it in Melody Maker which likened it to Big Star, Cheap Trick and The Raspberries. I had recently got into Big Star, and I liked the idea of Cheap Trick and The Raspberries, even though I had never heard them, so I bought the vinyl from the Left Legged Pineapple shop in Loughborough (which sadly closed its doors in 2007). I struck lucky, because it was a great album, and I remember playing it lots in the summer of 1993, along with "Frosting On The Beater" by The Posies.
The piece below is a review I did of the album recently for the "Disc Of The Day" spot on the Mojo magazine website. I've done a few similar reviews in the fantastical hope that I will be offered a job on the magazine, but so far it hasn't paid off. I suspect that this review has too many silly adjectives.
Outside In – Dillon Fence (Mammoth, 1993)
In the all - time power pop pantheon, The Posies’ 1993 sophomore Frosting On The Beater is rightly regarded as a classic, while Dillon Fence’s Outside In, released in the same year and every bit as deserving of power pop plaudits, isn’t regarded at all. Hailing from North Carolina, Dillon Fence take the de rigeur power pop influences of their day (Byrds, Big Star, Beatles, etc), and bolster them with a beefy undercarriage of heavy riffage and crunchy virtuosity that give this album a steely spine.
Opening number “Collapsis”, precisely structured on a bed of Byrdsy harmonies, has Greg Humphreys’ voice cutting through like Bon Scott to wake up those who had assumed this was power pop by numbers. “Poor Poor Lonely” sports a roving, supple verse that tumbles into a boogying, bluesy guitar break and then some zinging twin guitar action a la Thin Lizzy. Tunes like “Safety Net” and “Black Eyed Susan” are sweet, citrussy melodies underpinned with a thrusting momentum, sounding like an unlikely but genius marriage of Teenage Fanclub and AC/DC. There’s a spot of gentle acoustic reverie with the pretty instrumental miniature “Union Grove” and highlight “Any Other Way” unfurls like an effortless but intricate McCartney ballad. Meatiness abounds in the coiled riffery and throaty vocals of “Waking Up” and “Headache” but there’s lightness as well in the breezy, sunny melodies of “Lisa Marie” and “Hold Me Down”. It all adds up to an extremely varied and durable collection of tunes that deserves a place in the collection of any self-respecting power pop aficionado!
Further listening –
Saturation – Urge Overkill (Geffen 1993)
Frosting On The Beater – The Posies (Geffen 1993)
Cheap Trick – Cheap Trick (Epic 1977)
And here's the band performing "Poor Poor Lonely" live, perhaps my favourite track from the album:
