Of all the obvious potshots one might be tempted to take at Neil Hagerty, he's got at least one thing going for him: a sense of determination so stubborn, it puts the "pathetic" in "apathetic". After my esteemed colleague Mark Richardson essentially wrote the man's career epitaph over the course of reviewing his first two solo outings, the former king of the Royal Trux monarchy shows that he can not only stick to a record-a-year release schedule, but that he also doesn't give much of a fuck about what anybody thinks of his inability to deliver a cohesive statement.
Physical Graffiti fans take note: like Neil Michael Hagerty and Plays That Good Old Rock and Roll, Hagerty's latest disc is all over the stylistic map, even upping the ante by sprawling out to the length of a double-LP. But where those previous records couldn't really offer much in the way of a good song, The Howling Hex is surprisingly chock-full of 'em. And believe it or not, this record succeeds where its predecessors failed so miserably: actually drawing the listener in with nearly an entire side's worth of straightforward, well-written tunes before veering off into the usual inconsistency.
"Firebase Ripcord", the first of several blue-eyed boogie numbers recorded in Chicago with a full band and minimal overdubs, finds Hagerty in a Phil Lynott state of mind as he offers a gravelly confession of nothing in particular. From there it's off to what could be an awfully contagious outtake from Accelerator ("Out of Reach"), a sloppy soul tune that's also about nothing in particular ("Watching the Sands"), and a fragile acoustic folk ballad ("Gray")-- all of which are equal parts concise and engaging.
The end of the equivalent to LP side one is the disc's turning point, where people are either going to succumb to its schizophrenia or depart without a backward glance. "Rockslide" is one of two (well, three if you count the studio-enhanced "Energy Plan") live recordings from some March 2002 shows that showcase Hagerty's mercurial guitar freakout mode, aided by Tim Barnes' tribal propulsion and Dan Brown's liquid bass. These drastic rearrangements of songs from the previous solo records are far beyond the semi-organized chaos that reigns elsewhere on this one, basically coming back to what we've been saying all along-- if you enjoy the sound of Hagerty finding his inner Joe Walsh (James Gang-era, that is), there's a lot to love; if not, well, you know where the skip button is.
Shifts in polarity aside, the first half of The Howling Hex is still quite outstanding-- with or without the lazy tape composition piece "Clermont Heights"-- begging the question of whether this might've been best left at a single LP's length. Because once side three hits, it's straight downhill with few exceptions: other than a shitkicking preamble to the closing "Energy Plan" ("AEP1") and a couple of similarly minded acoustic tunes, there's really not much worth going back to.
As active as he's been since the Royal Trux "hiatus" or "breakup" or whatever-- three solo records in addition to the Weird War and Drag City Supersession projects-- it's starting to look as if Hagerty's a bit lost without Jennifer Herrema's yin/yang of intolerability and tragic brilliance. But as long as his former partner remains MIA, it seems we have to take what we can get, along with all the lapses into mediocrity that entails.
