Description
Fourth from the Last is the debut album by the American ska/rockabilly band The W’s, released on SaraBellum Records in July 1998, a division of 5 Minute Walk Records distributed by ForeFront Records through Chordant Distribution Group. The album was produced by Masaki Liu of Dime Store Prophets fame.
The album was well received, achieving No. 4 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart and “Top Contemporary Christian” charts, and No. 147 on “The Billboard 200”. Although the album was pulled from the shelves of LifeWay Christian Resources stores for containing “indecent” words the album eventually sold over 200,000 units. The album received two Dove Awards in 1999, first for “Modern Rock Album of the Year,” and “Modern Rock Record Song of the Year” for the song “The Devil Is Bad”. The hidden track is a tribute to the band Five Iron Frenzy, performed in the style of Wesley Willis. Trivia: The name of the album is derived from the fact that the letter W is the fourth from the last letter in the Latin alphabet.
In yet another contemporary swingster offering, The W’s have concocted an album that owes more to other hip hit-makers climbing the current Billboard charts than your Granddaddy-O’s swing. The result is a youth group’s “Christian alternative” to bands like The Cherry Poppin’ Daddies or the Royal Crown Revue and even the more ska-focused Mighty Mighty Bosstones. The W’s swing-core is a similar sound owing some comparisons to these bands. The difference, of course, is The W’s music is coupled mostly with distinctively Christian messages.
The current ska movement is giving way to more swing influenced fare, and commendably The W’s are right there to make it happen. The horns are the real highlight. Bret Barker a.k.a Smiley plays the trumpet; James Carter a.k.a Yabbo plays the alto sax; Val Hellman a.k.a. Valentino plays the tenor sax and the clarinet. Together they form the horn-heavy core of this swinging mix. More horns would be more powerful, but these three fellows blow a brash, upbeat and catchy cacophony. Brian Morris a.k.a. Nigel on drums and Todd Gruener a.k.a. Rodd W. on bass throw down an adequately relentless rhythm. Both of them also present moments of truly inspired boogie, without being overly showy. A careful listen to the slippery bass lines shows a fondness for funk. Andrew Schar a.k.a. Little A uses his guitar primarily as a rhythm instrument as well, jangling and riffing along the beats, but staying out of the mix’s focus. Schar also doubles as the vocalist, but sounds like he’d be more at home in an MxPx or even Supertones type band than in full-swing mode. He’s no Frank Sinatra and he knows it, yet he does his best to try different singing styles to varying degrees of success. Overall, the band sounds like they are having a blast playing their post-punk pop mix of swing- influenced ditties that aren’t over reaching to prove their musical skills – this party was made for sock-hopping. Skanking is more in order than, say, the cha-cha. Skid-il-ly-doo!
In a move that makes no sense, the former Baptist Sunday School Board in Nashville, now known as Lifeway Christian Resources, has pulled Fourth from the Last from their stores’s CD bins in a reported move to “remove objectionable products.” Their objection: the verboten use of words like “suck” and “butt.” Five Minute Walk’s response that “This is true, but we aren’t dwelling on it. We believe that (The W’s) are relevantly relating with their generation” is correct. Lyrically, The W’s offer a whole batch of songs geared toward adolescent and twenty-something concerns in commonly accepted vernacular. None of the songs are overly clever or deeply profound, but these messages, drawn in part from scripture and simple observations of life from a Christian perspective, are precisely what parents wish their young people were filling their heads with rather than the more sexually explicit content subjected on their swinging or skanking peers. Maybe the fact that Billboard charted this album at #4 with over 9,000 scans resulting in the highest debut of an EMI Christian Music Group project proves that young people don’t really care what the LCR says. Sales are up. The party continues. Grab your guy or gal and hit the dance floor!
This is not to say that the album is without more curious attributes. The song «Pup», for example, details the experience of an obsessed stalker who enters his girlfriend’s home after dark under the pretense of feeding her pooch. It’s not likely that some “Charles Mansonish” listener will use this song in a “Helter Skelter” type fashion, especially since the perpetrator is caught in this case. Another song, «J.P.», goes too far, perhaps, when it names the person receiving the message, “Why don’t you just grow up?” Lastly, the chorus of «The Devil is Bad» is reminiscent of DeGarmo & Key’s «God Good, Devil Bad», and could prove appropriate fodder for another Swirling Eddies Sacred Cow lambaste:
‘Cause you are the devil and the devil is bad
You are the devil and the devil is bad…
You are the devil and you are bad.Regardless of the song’s lyrical triteness, it is one of the most fun tracks on a fun album. By contrast, in a rare turn at the lyrical helm, the bass player provides some of the more interesting and better constructed lyrics in «Dexter», a first hand account of odd incidents in a small town:
Riding on a go-cart, at my next door neighbors house.
I couldn’t tell the brake peddle from the cavities in his mouth.
Ran right over his dog and cat as the wheels left the ground.
Didn’t know a tree could make such a resonating sound.
Trips in an ambulance are like rides at the county fair
Needles, shots and setting bones, anyone can bare.
Hospitals smell real good, and HBO is free.
Dexter town is simple people, just like you and me.Further displaying their spirit of frivolity, the secret track is an intentionally cheesy-sounding ode to both label mate Five Irony Frenzy and their label, Five Minute Walk Records. Another track, «Alarm Clock», ends with raspberries that could be misconstrued as tooting – which would surely send the Baptists packing even faster. They’d be more comfortable with «Moses», a simple Sunday School lesson on God’s ability to use people great or small. The real highlights, however, include the album opener, «Open Minded», which has the most inspired horn-playing on the album, and «Frank», which humorously tells the tale of a contractor hell-bent on destroying the band.
Deep theological insights are obviously lacking, as is great poetry, but overall the lyrics aren’t shamefully embarrassing, and the music is consistently enjoyable. Despite a fair diversity in the songs sounds, there is a sameness to the entire record that will prevent this from ever becoming a classic – something their sophomore effort might avoid. Nevertheless, The W’s Fourth from the Last is fun stuff played well. It’s got a great beat, and you can dance to it. Dick Clark says: [Steven Stuart Baldwin a.k.a. “Dick Clark”, The Phantom Tollbooth, 9/23/98]
For those of us who skanked to the sounds of The Beat or The Specials back in the late seventies, the re-emergence of Ska in the USA mirrored by Christian bands jumping on the revival bandwagon does seem a little strange but there is something compelling about this music. The Supertones and the Insyderz have already seen releases win new friends for the genre but the W’s are the best of the pile so far. Developing a style that mixes rhythms and melody ideas from the roaring twenties with the frantic pace of Ska. This is Swing Ska! I listened and danced to the brilliant single «The Devil Is Bad» all summer and I’m glad to report that the rest of this album is as hot as that initial track suggested! The word that best sums up this debut is FUN!!! Mad lyrics and enthusiastic music sharply produced complete with compelling sounds make this one of the hot bands for 1998. Relentless in pace with a killer horn section. The W’s are pure exuberance. Other killer tracks include that sorry moral tale of «Frank»; «Moses» really swings daddio and «Alarm Clock» is my wife Pippa’s favourite because of the clever changes of pace during the song!! Overall this gets the big yes vote in the Rimmer household and we’ll be swinging and skanking into the autumn! Skiddily-doo! [Mike Rimmer, Cross Rhythms, October 1998]
> Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/album/5ZyJ4WdmnQEGI6vWOKs7Ab)
CD tracklist:
01. Open Minded – 4:15
02. The Devil Is Bad – 3:34
03. Frank – 4:13
04. JP – 3:07
05. Moses – 3:27
06. Pup – 2:24
07. King Of Polyester – 2:47
08. Jason E – 3:29
09. Alarm Clock – 3:32
10. Flower Tattoo – 2:05
11. Dexter – 3:21
12.1 Hui – 10:18
12.2 Untitled – 1:58
Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and CD by SaraBellum Records.
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