Dwight Twilley - Between the Cracks - Vol One (When!/Not lame)

The passing of Dwight Twilley on the 18th of this month was more than just another celebrity R.I.P., it was more akin to the passing of an era. Yes, there were a couple of noted Top 40 entries to his credit, but it was really the dedicated power pop cognoscenti that really felt the brunt of this loss. Occasionally whispered in the same breath as Big Star and Badfinger, Dwight Twilley (with the closely associated Dwight Twilley Band that found him paired with the late Phil Seymour in the late '70s), he wasn't always the immediate practitioner of the form that people associated with the genre.  Though musically active (perhaps right up until his unexpected passing) visibility was another story, despite the caliber of his recordings, especially the two landmark DTB albums, Sincerely (1976) and Twilley Don't Mind (1977) that veritably thumbtacked power pop on the proverbial map. 

A lot of you have no doubt read a flurry of remembrances on social media, or have found yourself spinning Twilley albums over the past couple of days. I had no personal connection to him, nor do I necessarily consider myself a major fan, but I appreciated his music, even ravenously at times. Most of what he had to offer is still available via paid download and streaming (and even the occasional reissue), and as of right now, the only thing I have to offer that's even slightly under the radar is this 2000 compilation composed out of outtakes and such, that ranges from 1973 to '94. Per the liner notes a good half of the songs are situated from 1983, just prior to his  '84 Jungle album, the last record of his to score a charting hit by way of "Girls."  That little morsel of trivia out of the way, for an album of abandoned material Twilley exuded a remarkable amount of quality control across a disparate and diverse selection of tracks. So much so, that even if you're a newbie to the man in question, Between the Cracks functions as a representative sampler of his arc as a songsmith.  It's another reminder of a bona fide talent that even the most observant of us took for granted, especially in the latter decades of his career.

01. Black Eyes

02. Let Me Down

03. Don't You Love Her

04. Lullaby

05. Forget About it Baby

06. Round and Around

07. Reach For the Sky

08. Too Young For Love

09. Eli Bolack

10. Oh Carrie

11. Living in the City

12. Christmas Love

13. To Get to You

14. Where the Birds Fly

15. No Place Like Home

16. Perfect World

Hear