EEE (album) explained

EEE
Type:studio
Artist:Don Dixon
Cover:EEE (album).jpg
Released:1989
Studio:Reflection Sound
Genre:Rock
Label:Enigma[1]
Producer:Don Dixon
Prev Title:Chi-Town Budget Show
Prev Year:1989
Next Title:Romantic Depressive
Next Year:1995

EEE is an album by the American musician Don Dixon, released in 1989.[2] [3]

The album's first single was "Bad Reputation".[4]

Production

Recorded at Reflection Sound Studios, in Charlotte, North Carolina, the album was produced by Dixon.[5] The Uptown Horns contributed to EEE, part of Dixon's efforts to incorporate elements of soul music in to the album's sound. Sonny Landreth played guitar on EEE; the John P. Kee New Life Community Choir sang on "I Can Hear the River".[6] [7]

Dixon's wife, Marti Jones, duetted with him on a cover of "Gimme Little Sign"; Dixon also covered "Dark End of the Street". "Calling Out for Love (At Crying Time)" was written by Dixon and Marshall Crenshaw. "EEE/T.O.T.T.V." is a sound collage that incorporates bits of indiscriminately taped television audio.

Critical reception

Trouser Press wrote that Dixon's songs "mine quirky rock-soul territory more persuasively than ever."[8] The Washington Post thought that "his husky voice and self-assured soul delivery suggest that Dixon really doesn't have any doubts about the material or his ability to put it across."[9] The Windsor Star called the album "a bracing release," writing that "the playing and arranging is superb."[10]

The Los Angeles Times stated that, "as always, Dixon has the skill to construct immaculate bridges, hooks, rhyme schemes, et al., and the passion to make all that care seem effortlessly irrelevant."[11] The Chicago Tribune determined that "Dixon continues to pen some of the most pessimistic, and powerfully alluring, love songs around." The Ottawa Citizen concluded that "only the Uptown Horns provide the needed excitement, but an album cannot stand on the flash of a good brass section alone." The Fayetteville Observer lamented that EEE "is essentially the same solo album Mr. Dixon has been making since his Triangle-based group Arrogance broke up—the stray pop gem mixed in with lots of catchy melodies that somehow don't add up to satisfying tunes."[12]

Notes and References

  1. News: Anderson . Dale . Don Dixon, EEE . The Buffalo News . January 19, 1990 . G34.
  2. Web site: Don Dixon Biography, Songs, & Albums. AllMusic.
  3. News: Haight . Kathy . Jack-of-All-Tunes – He Gets Raves as a Producer or Performer . The Charlotte Observer . October 28, 1989 . 27A.
  4. Newman . Melinda . Dixon Aims to 'EEE'spand Horizons . Billboard . Oct 14, 1989 . 101 . 41 . 34.
  5. News: Ayers . Anne . A duo for the '90s: Husband-wife team in sync in the studio . USA Today . 17 Aug 1989 . 1D.
  6. News: Heim . Chris . Don Dixon is perhaps best known as a leading... . Chicago Tribune . 6 Oct 1989 . Friday . 58.
  7. News: Burliuk . Greg . Summing Up Poetically . Whig-Standard . 3 Feb 1990 . Magazine . 1.
  8. Web site: Don Dixon . Trouser Press . 4 January 2022.
  9. News: 'EEE' Spells Out the Dixon Line . The Washington Post . 4 January 2022.
  10. News: Shaw . Ted . Stuck for a gift? Try some music . Windsor Star . 16 Dec 1989 . C2.
  11. News: Willman . Chris . Secret of Don Dixon Gets Out at China Club . Los Angeles Times . 4 Oct 1989 . Calendar . 3.
  12. News: Mullen . Rodger . Dixon Has Good Ideas but Too Few Good Songs . The Fayetteville Observer . November 5, 1989 . Leisure.