Review

Since Alex Chilton seems to have had trouble coming up with an LP's worth of tunes at one time since re-emerging as an active performer in the 1980s, he's released a number of EPs, and this CD reissue pairs up two of his best. 1985's Feudalist Tarts was Chilton's first studio release since 1979; after spending most of the 1970s as one of the few rock acts from the Deep South who displayed almost no visible R&B influence, Chilton belatedly embraced the pleasures of vintage soul music after moving to New Orleans and giving up alcohol, and Feudalist Tarts is dominated by covers of Slim Harpo's "Ti Ni Nee Ni Noo" and Carla Thomas's "B-A-B-Y," with bare-wired originals like "Lost My Job" along for good measure. Cut in a single day, Feudalist Tarts is a bit rough around the edges, but Chilton's guitar playing is solid, and the band of veteran Southern studio players give Chilton as good as he gets (if not better). The following year, Chilton released the three-song No Sex 12"; the title tune is the best song he's written since Big Star's breakup, a witty but ominous meditation on the consequences of the AIDS pandemic (which, given his reputation as a ladies' man, has doubtless been a matter of great concern to Chilton). Feudalist Tarts and No Sex don't do much to fill out a CD together -- their combined length is less than 33 minutes -- but they are two of the most solid records of Chilton's mid-'80s "comeback" period.