Review Summary: The Plumber manages to eke out on the side of good, but is measurably less compelling than its predecessor, with improved songwriting but weaker solos.
You Don't Have To Be Pretty To Sing The Blues may be the title of the second track on The Plumber, but it could also be taken as a statement of intent. Dave Hole's overall presentation and demeanour is that of a rough, kinda unkempt but definitely unpretentious fellow who just goes in there and gives the crowd what they want. Interestingly for a general performer but unsurprisingly for someone so dedicated to the blues, it's not until his twilight years that he gets a bit weird with his output, and on The Plumber certainly, he delivers some of his most no-frills material.
Now, it's worth noting that even at this stage, it's not as if Hole has no songwriting chops. He actually relies less on old twelve-bar set-ups to come up with his own hooks, and he creates some cracking vehicles for them here. The opening title track may be short, but it's just fast and rugged enough to get the blood pumping. Other songs seem to show a slight influence from AC/DC of all bands, which makes sense given they are Australia's biggest musical export. You Don't Have To Be Pretty To Sing The Blues and New Way To Live play a bit with the blues but also definitely lean into that feel-good bar band sound that provides some instant gratification. Is It True (Part 1) is the album's biggest surprise, however, with a driving country/rockabilly beat that tests Hole's ability to keep up on guitar the most.
Hole's singing voice has also seen a bit more definition. Though he was never a great singer, here he knows the best way to belt his material, with all the snarling falsetto and rugged grit of a seasoned veteran, combining a mature sound with more performative showstopper affectations. He's clearly having a lot of fun doing what he's doing and it's hard not to join at some of the album's big moments, especially the titanic Sign Me Up, where he just belts it out.
Unfortunately, for the improvements Hole has made in the command of his voice, he has lost a bit in command over his guitar, which makes The Plumber a bit more of a drag than Short Fuse Blues despite being twelve minutes shorter, and it's really as simple as him losing variance in technique. The Plumber is chock full of solos, but a lot of them contain the same classical blues digressions, scales and holds. The high-end pitch harmonic is especially abused, and as a result his guitar doesn't have the same presence as it should in general. His playing still feels fiery, and is occasionally kinetic to the point of being genuinely impressive, but it's definitely not as playful.
Which in itself is a weird thing to say, as this album is a lot more lean and crowd-pleasing than the last one, which wasn't an art album by any means, but The Plumber is comprised mostly of jams. Hole and company found a groove they liked for most tracks, fleshed it out a bit and then clearly laid down the recordings in one take. With a lot of adlibs during solos, basic scales and shredding and many tracks lacking the extra production of a rhythm guitar and pumping the room and verb up to give it that stage sound, it's clear this album was meant more as a blueprint from which Hole could create solos on the fly live while giving listeners something to sink their teeth into in the rhythm section. Which works more than it doesn't, but only slightly.
Generally, the shorter songs are palatable. Is This True presents a really good dual framework, the first part being a rambunctious rockabilly number and the second being a much slower, even atmospheric, take on the blues, with just the right ramps in intensity and a great use of the main riff as a motif to create an enchanting experience. These two songs probably represent the peak of Hole's songwriting at this time, but the rhythm sections found in songs like You Don't Have To... show his growing songwriting alacrity as well. Special mention must be made to Boogaloo, whose production is just a bit too muted to make it great but packs an off-kilter interpretation of the Bo Diddley rhythm and some weird vocal affectations that could almost be mistaken for one of Ween's classic rock throwbacks.
But other songs, despite still being fun listens, showcase his limitations. North West Blues is probably the closest Hole ever came to SRV's Texas Flood, though he would brush with the 80s legend's sound often, and features some great stop-start pace and lightning fast solos that set it apart from the snail's pace of the song in a way that's really compelling, but it's dragged down both by the length and by the cheap glossy piano tone. Do What You Do and Three Days Out are the most basic blues tunes you've heard a million variations of, and Wrecking Ball could almost be called filler outside of its funky main riff.
So close to the middle is the ratio of worthwhile songs to songs with no nutritional value that I was so close to handing this a flat average rating, but the power of the great hooks, and occasionally great moments of solo, that can be found within cannot be denied and just barely make The Plumber worth listening to in full. But you'll likely find a few of your favourites to add to your playlist and discard the rest, not dissimilar to how I imagine Hole treats these songs when drafting future setlists even at the time. It's just plain not as compelling in a way that was not a problem with his debut, and the production here is somehow more dated despite featuring improved general songwriting. Still, Hole's refusal to buckle completely to the blues frameworks makes this a worthwhile listen, even if the deficiency of great solos does not make it an essential one.
