Magazine: Pulse! Issue: May 1995 
Title: Column - Rock/pop Author: Scott Schinder

White-boy power-pop diehards are welcome to continue carping about the
roots-kitsch kitchen-sink approach that Alex Chilton has pursued since his
return to active duty in the mid-1980s, but that'll probably keep them from
noticing that the reluctant legend's strip-joint soul has evolved from
half-baked screwing-around into something resembling a cohesive vision. A
Man Called Destruction (Ardent, ****) is Chilton's strongest outing to date
in this vein, encompassing spirited covers of Jimmy Reed, Chris Kenner and
the Beach Boys -- not to mention the obscure '70s horoscope-soul tune
"What's Your Sign Girl" -- alongside some similarly greasy originals. Sure,
A Man Called Destruction is the work of a knowledgeable craftsman rather
than the intimate outpourings of a man on the edge, but on its own terms
this is a hoot. His hipster cred may never have recovered from the new-Dylan
hype that accompanied his 1978 debut, but Steve Forbert has quietly matured
into a distinctly grown-up artist with a firm grasp on the ambiguity and
unpredictability of life in the real world. Like most of Forbert's recent
work, Mission of the Crossroad Palms (Paladin/Giant, ****) is probably too
unassumingly out front in its plainspoken insights to broaden this perennial
dark horse's demographics, but rambunctious rockers like "It Sure Was Better
Back Then" and earthy ballads like "The Trouble With Angels" compellingly
chronicle a soiled innocent's stumbling efforts to make some sense of
things.