GLYN STYLER
LIVE AT THE MERMAID LOUNGE

Produced by Jeff Treffinger
Mastered by John Hiler

PERSONNEL
Glyn Styler: guitar, vocals  
Jeff Treffinger: guitar
Rene Coman: bass

SONGS
1. No Strings Attached
2. Come Cry With Me
3. Love At Your Fingertips
4. Cry Me A River/Goin' Out Of My Head
5. You Killed My Love

REVIEW
"New" lounge music is soaked with kitsch and irony, but heed this, our fair warning to you: New Orleaneanian Glyn Styler is frighteningly for real, a complete and utter rejection of that interpretation. On Live At The Mermaid Lounge, Styler is the spine-tingling incarnation of one of swinging decadence's hidden truths: A broken man with an aching baritone and a permanent residence on the early a.m. shift, singing to the patrons too drunk to leave or too dejected to have anywhere else to go. On these five cuts, there's only Styler's guitar strums and his chilling voice, but underneath those sounds is the roar of a man driven to the edge. Even on his one interpretation of a standard, "Cry Me A River" (fused in a medley with "Goin' Out Of My Head"), the cooing versions delivered in the past are obliterated by Styler's embittered rendering. He doesn't change a note or a word, but conjures a murderous, shadowed version, and by the time you hear his cracking voice conclude with "Cry me a fucking river!" you'll never be able to hear the song the same way again (and the following phrase of "Well, I think I'm goin' out of my head" will have an entirely new and sinister meaning). And the lyrics of Styler's originals are every bit as frightening: "You killed my love/With admirable expertise/Brought it down to its shaking knees/And delivered the blow...You killed my love." These are the love songs for only the blackest of agonizing hearts. -CMJ

Copyright 2002 Truckstop Records.