Secretly Canadian
2006
The Truth Doesn't Matter
About This Album
Recorded in Berlin in 2005 by Phil Freeborn -- with more recording and mixing done by John A. Rivers in England in early 2006 -- the 15 tracks on the Truth Doesn't Matter are the last rock & roll testament of Nikki Sudden, who died in March of 2006. Sudden, who produced these tracks (they're the most polished sessions he ever played on), leaves us as a man who relished the loose yet tough approach of the early Rolling Stones and the Faces, and wrote songs close to the heart and bone of life. That said, it's a little unsettling to hear the synth drum accompanied by a disco bassline and an amplified harmonium that are the spine of "Seven Miles," the opening cut. With multi-tracked backing vocals by Elisabeth Wood, and gritty electric guitars by Sudden and Darrel Bath, it remains a quintessential Sudden number, but who knows whether or not it is a send-up? It's got the short lines, the chunky chords, and the tenderness in the lyrics reminiscent of his best work.

Thankfully, though, the rest of the disc doesn't follow in its footsteps. It really kicks off with "Don't Break My Soul," a freewheeling, looser-than-loose garage rock anthem. With Einar Stenseng's Hammond B-3 work, and the two guitars hammering out the riff, it's got the pathos, drama, and rave-up instability that was Sudden's trademark.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 and 11)

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