The Ike Reilly Assassination – Sparkle In The Finish

The Ike Reilly Assassination is fronted by, you guessed it, Ike Reilly. And even though he has received numerous raving reviews from publications such as New York Times, Chicago Sun-Times, Maxim, and the LA Times, he is still considered a “under appreciated artist” to his fans. He is labeled that due to the fact that he has yet to break into the main stream and get The Ike Reilly Assassination more recognition around the general music community. After hearing Sparkle In The Finish you can see why he’s received all the good press, but its also evident as to why he hasn’t broken into the main stream yet.

Reilly’s bluesy/folksy indie rock songs don’t follow much sturdy structure. There’s the high energy, nearly pop-rock song of Garbage Day that comes right on the heels of the sing-along drinking song The Boat Song (We’re Getting Wasted). The groggy acoustic track of Waitin’ For Daddy that brings up visions of Tom Waits while Holiday In New York could easily be another Honorary Title track. And of course, like on all good indie-rock albums, there’s the ballads of St. Joe’s Band and Ex-Americans to end the album. But even with these variations within each songs, there is one thing constant within them all. And that is Reilly’s passionate and unique vocals spitting out intelligent, thought provoking ironic lyrics. The harsh, beer-worn vocalist sings about sex, drugs, rock’n’roll and more. You just wish the album had come with all the lyrics.

This album features a little bit of something for everyone, but also something that everyone will hate. It takes a while to get a full, solid feel for the album, and even then, there’s times when you will be skipping over tracks that don’t really do it for you. But songs like St. Joe’s Band, I Don’t Want What You Got, The Boat Song and Garbage Day will easily find a comfortable place inside any upcoming mix tapes you are trying to complete. Really, its a CD for the guitar and vocal driven fans, because as you would have guessed, The Ike Reilly Assassination is centered around Ike Reilly and his soothing and worn vocals.