The Dwight Twilley Band's first album,
Sincerely, suffered through a long, drawn-out gestation before
Twilley and
Phil Seymour simply holed up in an Oklahoma studio and cranked it out themselves, handling all the instruments through the wonders of overdubbing. By contrast, their follow-up,
Twilley Don't Mind, came much faster and easier;
Twilley and
Seymour had already been playing most of the material that would make up
Twilley Don't Mind on the road touring behind their debut LP, and while the sophomore album's technique is as unassailable as
Sincerely, it sounds less like studio craftsmanship than a tight band knocking out their songs in real time.
Twilley Don't Mind also pares back a bit of the eclecticism of
Sincerely in favor of a more unified and energetic musical approach, embracing the joys of simple but hooky guitar-based rock on "Here She Comes," "Invasion," "Rock and Roll '47" and the title track, though the cool and moody "That I Remember," the neo-psychedelic "Sleeping" and the sparkling folk-rocker "Chance to Get Away" made it clear
Twilley still had plenty of ideas left in his bag of tricks. He didn't opt to reveal as many of them on this album, however; featuring only nine tunes, the album feels unnecessarily short, one of the key reasons it feels a bit pale in comparison to
Sincerely. However, what
Twilley and
Seymour did bring to the table on
Twilley Don't Mind was first rate power pop every bit as satisfying as
Badfinger and
Big Star at their best, and anyone with a yen for a smart hook will revel in this. ~ Mark Deming