Dom Mariani "Shell Collection" Outtakes And Rarities 1988-2006

Working out what makes Dom Mariani’s music so worthy in a crowded field of people plying powerful pop is like untying a musical Gordian knot. Far better to leave that one to the pointyheads,  navel gazers or academics like Robert Christgau and enjoy it for what it is: damn fine rock and roll with both a tough streak and an acute pop sensibility…...Armed with a guitar, a melodic voice, a sympathetic band and a songbook full of hooks, Mariani makes it all sound so effortlessly easy that you have to wonder why most of the other people mining the same turf don’t just jack it in and go and flip burgers. Not that anyone (Dom included) is getting rich making music that’s too real to play on most radio.
 “Shell Collection” is a bits ‘n’ pieces lot of a dozen hard-to-find songs, plus two that haven’t troubled the official who runs the interchange bench in rock and roll’s football game, but you’d hardly pick it as patchwork. You’d more likely peg it as a close cousin of the two similarly excellent outtake/B side “Garage Sale” collections, issued by Citadel under the DM3 moniker in the 1990s – which is to say it’s consistent and well-tracked..
 Citadel has, of course, been Mariani’s long-term home, but he and Off the Hip have moved into each other’s orbits through Dom and label honcho, Mickster Baty, working together in the Stoneage Hearts. There’s a new Stems recording coming down the turnpike as well, so the relationship shapes as fruitful.
 More immediately, there are compelling reasons for any Mariani/DM3 fan to have this one in their racks. The songwriting is (as usual) top shelf and most, if not all, of the tracks are up to the mark of past efforts. Mariani’s guitar-playing also remains an under-rated asset and there’s plenty of it in evidence.
The overall feel is more subdued than, say, DM3’s best albums (they’d be “Rippled Soul” and “Road to Rome”, in my book). “When It Ends”, for example, is an acoustic version of the song that graced “Homespun Blues and Greens” (the only official solo Mariani album, prior to this), and “The Golden Ones” is a remixed Majestic Kelp (lounge-surf) song that came out on a Freshwater single (and probably isn’t essential in this context). The cover of the Manikins’ “I Never Thought I’d Find”, on the other hand, is a keeper, with “Always Wrong” (a shared write with that band’s Neil Fernandes) and its Creedence-gets-tough riff not far behind.
 It takes a skilled pop exponent to tackle Brian Wilson with any dexterity and Mariani’s “Caroline, No” is a candidate for one of the best Beach Boys covers ever. Not that the shells are all pristine pop in this collection – “Snapshot” (another Freshwater seven-inch) is muscular rock-pop magic and “Real Friend”, a Sweet Jane-ish intro capped by a rise-and-fall melody, ups the ante in the grittiness stakes.
 There was a sense that Dom Mariani was swimming against the tide in the grunge era of the ‘90s and might be doing something similar in these days of diversity and downloads, but more strength to him. It’d be a boring existence if he had to swim between the flags. – The Barmantrax:
01 I Never Thought I'd Find 02 Pussycat 03 Caroline, No 04 When It Ends 05 The Golden Ones 06 Too Late 07 Snapshot 08 Real Friend 09 Always Wrong 10 You Don't Care 11 Green Eyed Monster 12 Fame 13 Fireplace 14 Jenny
…originally served by Gyro1966...