Steve Conte, Andy Partridge, and Record Store Day

By Henry Lipput

Steve Conte’s new album The Concrete Jangle (Wicked Cool Records) is being released this Saturday on Record Store Day! So find a store here and get there early!

New York-based rocker Conte has worked with The New York Dolls and Michael Monroe and for The Concrete Jangle he has joined forces with Andy Partridge of XTC and, most recently, last year’s The 3 Clubmen EP. Conte and Partridge co-wrote the five songs on side one of the album and Conte went it alone for the five songs on side two. “I knew they’d have to stand up next to the Partridge co-writes,” said Conte in the album’s press materials about the songs on the flip side, “so I pulled some of the more psychedelic, adventurous, soulful songs from the Beatles/XTC/Motown side of my musical brain.”

The Concrete Jangle kicks off with the lead track and the first single from the album “Fourth of July.” The song is a burst of pop goodness and although it has trademark Partridge lyrical flourishes Conte brings the vocal and guitar licks for which he is known to make the song his own.

“Hey Hey Hey (Aren’t You The One”) starts off with a guitar riff reminiscent of Wasp Star’s “Playground” and continues with more riffs, a clean, melodic guitar solo, and some neat farfisa organ fills. And then there’s Partridge in love-struck mode: “Aren’t you the one/The one set to stun/Zap my heart just for fun/Are you the one.” Partridge was given co-producer credit for the co-writes and this is most apparent on “One Last Bell” a song whose arrangement recalls XTC songs like “The Last Balloon” and “Harvest Festival.”

Side two is all Conte all the time. Highlights (and there are many) include “All Tied Up.” It’s a cool tune about the many faces of love and features a terrific vocal from Conte as well as some of the best guitar work on the album (and there are handclaps!). “Girl With No Name” is a power pop treat with a tune and arrangement that could have been a mid-Sixties AM radio hit (and might just be one now on the interwebs radio).

Conte also said in the press materials that he told Partridge that for one of the songs “we should put on our Dukes of Stratosphere hats.” I don’t think any of the co-writes on side one of The Concrete Jangle fit that description but one of the songs on side two, “Decomposing A Song For You” is just that. It may be my favorite song on the album. Conte has rummaged through the Beatles side of his brain to fit together a “Penny Lane”-like piano, "Walrus" strings, and treated vocal and used the ingredients to bake a Dukes-like treat. And there’s even a bit of sitar at the very end!