Today Wonder

Though he formed the Saints with Chris Bailey in 1975, Ed Kuepper left the band before its biggest popular success (though after its best recordings). The Saints were one of Australia's premier punk bands, and Kuepper played on two albums before leaving in 1979 to form the Laughing Clowns, a band whose sound was more jazzy and quite a bit more experimental than his former group. The Laughing Clowns released three EPs during the early '80s before their debut self-titled album appeared in 1982. Kuepper led the band through four additional albums, but became a solo act beginning with the surprisingly pop-oriented Electrical Storm in 1986. After another pop album, Rooms of the Magnificent, Capitol took a chance on Kuepper and signed him; his response was Everybody's Got To, his third great pop album in a row. Nevertheless, it failed to click with radio programmers or the public.

Capitol later dropped Kuepper and he responded in 1990 with the acoustic, stripped-back Today Wonder. One year later, he formed the Aints -- a jab at Chris Bailey, who continued to use the Saints' name during the '80s and '90s -- to release Ascension. He returned to solo status in 1992, and began a string of seven studio LPs over the next four years, plus two mail-order-only albums and a best-of entitled Sings His Greatest Hits. Despite his very appreciative cult of fans and torrid release schedule, Ed Kuepper has not managed a breakthrough to wide popular acclaim.

Originally released in 1990 and then re-released in 2002 with a solid remastering job and a slew of extra tracks from a Dutch radio session, Today Wonder in many ways was the release that helped determine part (if not all) of Ed Kuepper's future work. Specifically, it's the way around close, quiet, but still tense and strong performances, evident on such later releases as I Was a Mail Order Bridegroom. In the reissue, Kuepper notes how he and drummer Mark Dawson wanted to avoid "the usual 'doing the greatest hits acoustically' routine," and in a series of rehearsals for a tour start tried other approaches with newer songs or cover versions. Dawson himself plays a stripped-down set -- partially using a cardboard box -- while Kuepper uses a variety of unexpected tunings on his guitar, as well as using his familiar, rich voice. The end result's a beauty of a record, captured well on tape with just enough echo (Kuepper semi-jokingly calls the effect "ambient rockabilly," and certainly on songs like "Always the Woman Pays" it could be the Durutti Column at Sun Studios). One of Kuepper's all-time classics, "Everything I've Got Belongs to You," made its first bow here, the killer opening line, "I've designs on you that come from dirty books" still a winner, while an earlier sample of his brilliance, the Saints' "Eternally Yours," also takes a bow. Covers include Tim Hardin's "If I Were a Carpenter" and the title track, actually a medley with Donovan and the Animals adding to Kuepper's original, while self-penned highlights include "What You Don't Know," with a nervous, dramatic edge, and the gentler-paced but not-less-commanding "There's Nothing Natural." The radio-set extras add even more of a frenetic charge to the more commanding songs -- "Always the Woman Pays" practically leaps out at the listener and "Pretty Mary" isn't far behind.