Review Summary: Under The Spell features some downplayed singer-songwriter tendencies that give the album a sly hypnotic quality, but as an album that still plays close to the chest with regards to blues staples, it's not as exciting as his previous works.
After Ticket To Chicago, likely Hole's dream album, the man would seemingly spend the rest of his recording career in Perth, although he would remain a touring force the world over. Even though he wouldn't reach the lavish heights of recording in the Windy City, one could hope he would still have taken home plenty of expertise to bring to his next few studio efforts. Dave Hole lives and breathes the blues, but every album still remains at least somewhat interesting to see what other influences creep in. After all, how many blues legends do you know from Australia of all places, let alone Western Australia, infamous for being the most boring and stodgy territory in the country? Under The Spell is a bit of a transitional period for the artist, seemingly still reeling from the return home. It's still very blues, to a fault if you ask me, but there's also a somewhat grittier homeland edge in there somewhere, enough to save it from mediocrity but not enough to make it memorable.
If I had to place Hole's sound somewhere at this point in time, it would be as a measurably less witty and sardonic, and more instrumentally driven, late era Warren Zevon. Under The Spell features a lot of songs with slow, lumbering grooves that pack a lot of pomp in a short space and let it ride out for five minutes or so. Demolition Man, for example, has a simple riff that is only a play on the twelve bar chord structure, but the beat is so accented and well-paced that it takes you with it every step of the way, and Hole uses this motif well for some invigorating, if unoriginal, delivery, both on the vocals side and on his guitar. Cuts like Run With Me perform similarly, having a sonically darker undertone whose repetitions belie a subtle edge of singer-songwriter tendencies.
Another quality of the album that tells me he took more to a singer-songwriter act is the increased presence of solo acoustic numbers. These have almost always been a staple of Hole's studio efforts, but never has it felt as pronounced. Lost At Sea and I've Got To Go only feature overdubs of other acoustic guitars but are otherwise very stripped down and direct. I've Got To Go is especially good, using the sparse accompaniment and twisted take on twelve bar blues to deliver a haunting take on imminent loss.
All in all, it makes for a pleasant listen that evolves just enough over the course of the album to be well far from monotony. Unfortunately, what it lacks in surprises it also seems to lack in general excitement, and Under The Spell presents one of his most "in one ear and out the other" listening experiences yet. Short Memory, not just a song off this album, could be representative of Hole's attention span in the songwriting process as, once again, it's not bad enough that many of these songs sound the same, but that many feel the same. I See My Baby, Don't Say Goodbye, Cold Women With Warm Hearts, Bird's Eye View, all constitute songs that you absolutely don't need to hear before you die.
The reason why this is is simple: Under The Spell, for all its mild digressions into solo act atmosphere and singer-songwriter territory, still maintain's Ticket's ethos of riding blues staples for as far as they can go, but the more subdued delivery of the hooks on offer means it's less exciting and the obvious songwriting faux pas' stick out more. No matter what version of the album you're listening to, it opens with a very typical electric Chicago blues cut, though Holding Pattern edges out Short Memory.
Hole's albums, through their numerous reissues overseas, have had varying song line-ups before, but Under The Spell highlights how confusing the distinctions can be. Several editions nix I See My Baby and Guitar Man, neither of which are essential to the package, but they also leave out Too Old To Rock 'n' Roll, one of the album's best songs and a suitably humourous take on Hole's identity on a conceptual level, as well as I've Got To Go, which is again one of Hole's few acoustic cuts that works the entire way through. I fail to see what motivated the powers that be to remove those and not, say, Don't Say Goodbye.
But honestly, discussion of the songwriting and the distinction between different songs can get laborious and superfluous on a Dave Hole project. Under The Spell works for what it wants to do, which is deliver a slightly more subdued but no less polished take on old school blues, as he has been doing for a decade by this point, and it is a suitable follow-up to its predecessor in the sense that the sound is a lot more clean and polished. But he also couldn't draw on the world class musicians of the last project, so even with similar goals, the album is measurably less fun. Still, I'd rather be on the side of defending Under The Spell and its aspirations, few though they are. The riffs sound gnarly, particularly on the bitter More Love Less Attitude, and the solos are less frenetic but more melodic, saving the blazing fast moments for the instrumental cover of Chicken Stuff.
The album's somewhat hypnotic qualities are probably what gave the album its name, and even though it doesn't narrow down Hole's essence or feel like his most quintessential or definitive album, there's definitely an air about it that is all his, but all of this means I respect the album a fair bit more than I actually enjoy it. Most days of the week, I would rather pop on the bouncy and fiery Short Fuse Blues or Take Me To Chicago, the songful Outside Looking In or the biting Steel On Steel. But if you're looking for a slightly more subdued but no less groovy take on electric slide guitar driven Chicago blues, Under The Spell may be what you're looking for. It'll command your attention, but perhaps not your memory, at least not for very long.
