Q Magazine (London) 137, Feb 1998, p. 139



Tom Stevens

Points Revisited

MAIA MR-06



**** (four stars)



'80s and '90s solo output from former Long Ryders bassist.



Before joining alternative country godfathers, the late, great, Long

Ryders in 1984, Tom Stevens, the self-styled George Harrison, had

recorded Points of View, a mini-album of serviceable melodic

powerpop.  Points Revisited adds its five tracks to three mid-80s

demos, including a thrilling embryonic stab at the Ryders' classic

Years Long Ago, and 10 previously unreleased songs recorded the

band's 1988 demise and Stevens's sterling solo debut proper, Another

Room, in 1995.  Insipid production makes the early songs jangle along

too politely, while the roots rock flavoured later tracks, The Upper

Hand, Pamela, and Fading Light wouldn't have disgraced the finest

Long Ryders session, and render Stevens's creative sidelining

retrospectively suspect.



Stewart Lee