Everything Is Beautiful: A Retrospective (1983-1995)

Album Review

Always willfully inscrutable (and occasionally downright insufferable), the Wolfgang Press have had a long and colorful career, one which is nicely summarized in this retrospective compilation. Although the trio has always had something of a reputation as artsy iconoclasts, the simple fact is that the band has never stopped looking back at vintage American soul music; the massed horns and falsetto backing vocals on "Going South," the gospel overtones of "A Girl Like You," and the band's famously execrable cover of "Respect" (recorded with help from Cocteau Twins) are all evidence of a fairly single-minded musical sensibility. What has always made them unique is the skillful complexity of their beat-driven sound and the really pretty awful voice of singer and bandleader Michael Allen. Highlights here include the beautifully funky "Chains" and the just plain beautiful live version of "People Say." Fans will appreciate the remixes, and for everyone else, this is probably all the Wolfgang Press they need.