A quick heads-up today; you can stream Richard Hell’s “Destiny Street Repaired” for the next few days, and it’s well worth a listen.
A strange one, this, in that Hell, dissatisfied with the recording of the second Voidoids album for the best part of three decades now, has ostensibly had another crack at it. Taking the original rhythm tracks as his base, he’s added new vocals – still commendably snotty – and guitar tracks, notably all new solos. The prospect of replacing Robert Quine’s clearly a bit of a stretch, but Hell’s recruited Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell and Ivan Julian, which works pretty well.
At a push, you could see this whole project as New York punk’s answer to “Smile”; a blighted project, finally sorted out after a ridiculous length of time. I’m playing it now, and those new guitar breaks on “Downtown At Dawn” are terrific. Have a play with the “Destiny Street Repaired” stream here and let me know what you think.