Review of Balancing Act/Galveston
From NME 1997
Evan Dando went mad at Reading Festival and threw lots of children out of the Signing Tent which, if we're not very much mistaken, is The Spirit. "Balancing Act", a cover of the Volcano Sons classic noone's ever heard of, is a hoary fuck-off to the winsome cloud-watcher of yesteryear and sounds like the voice of a man recovering from a gruelling night on pints of ketamine depth-charge. Grizzly, gnarled, a bit Joy division, even, it is unfeasibly great. "Galveston", the Jimmy Webb classic, everyone's heard of because it's one of the greatest songs ever written, sees Evan singing proper, like, so he was only joking, really. Whatever, country is the new rock'n'roll and Richard Ashcroft's favourite tune of the moment is Dolly Parton's "Jolene", to prove it (true fact!).