TRAiPSiNG THRU the AiSLES: add these to your basket
November 4, 2024
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
It's how fledgling artists learn their craft, by listening to, then emulating the greats. Stealing what you like, then making it your own. Jeremie Albino's fourth LP is the sound of an outfit getting it right. It's the story of a onetime Toronto busker, given the lifetime opportunity to record with a masterful backing band. Black Keys guitarist, singer, and producer Dan Auerbach came across Albino's Instagram and arranged for a meeting. His Easy Eye Sound has been the label home for a number of such showcases, including work with Early James, Britti, and Hermanos Gutierrez, each of which Auerbach has treated to a recording facility and a crack studio band that has raised their sound to new heights. On Our Time In the Sun, that band includes Heliocentrics drummer Malcolm Catto, keyboardist Mike Rojas, and guitarists (Little) Barrie Cadogan, Tommy Brenneck, and Tom Bukovac, laying down a timeless groove upon which the singer casts his powerful throwback vocals. The results mine expressions of classic country, early rock 'n soul, and r&b. Albino and Auerbach start simmering with the horns and gospel chorus of "I Don't Mind Waiting". "Baby Ain't It Cold Outside" creates a huge Muscle Shoals racket, raising the song into the rafters, from an opening drum tumble to its victorious chorus. Auerbach's production is remarkably consistent from album-to-album, from one artist to the next. On Our Time, the bass and drums carry the day, most notably on the swampy "Dinner Bell": Somebody lied / When they told you / You could keep the devil satisfied. Primal guitar and dense organ add to one of the looser, uninhibited tracks. Both "Rolling Down the 405" and "Struggle With the Bottle" emphasize the country side of Albino's country-soul equation, also creating sonic space to showcase his voice. Both youthful and ages old, Albino's delivery has been his distinct calling card since his 2019 debut, but it sounds bigger and more confident than before. Songs are cowritten with Albino and Auerbach, with Pat McLaughlin and a couple other veteran writers at the table as well. Most tracks wear their influences proudly, time-stamped in a similar manner as Nathaniel Rateliff or St Paul & the Broken Bones. Dan Auerbach hasn't so much changed Jeremie Albino's sound, but with his superb session players he has coaxed forward the artist's formidable talents.
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Sam Blasucci has performed with Clay Finch in the California folk-rock duo Mapache, releasing a handful of very good, easygoing records. One was a concept album about a dog's trip to the beach. Blasucci's 2023 solo debut, Off My Stars, provided a nice glimpse beyond his duo work, incorporating pop and jazz elements for a more extroverted sound. Real Life Thing is delivered hot on the heels of that debut, and largely builds on the artistic trends Blasucci established there, while also leaning into his inherent theatricality. Coproduced with Johnny Payne (who served the same role on the first solo LP), Real Life Thing dwells upon issues of gender expression and the manner in which we choose to show ourselves. On "Death", Blasucci challenges the listener: Look at how we misuse / All our sexuality / You look like death, I know / And death has never looked so good to me. The upbeat track rides on a piano which Blasucci inherited from the parents of his Mapache bandmate, and upon which the artist has written much of his new collection. "No Magic" recalls Todd Rundgren's at first listen, an artist whose inspiration can be heard throughout the session. Blasucci handles most of the instrumentation on his songs, with the exception of some percussion and the woodwinds of Randal Fisher, whose sax introduces the Brian Wilson/Van Dyke Parks-esque "Flower". Like Father John Misty, there is a late-night lounge sensibility to these songs, from the bass pulse and swirling intro of "Howl At the Moon" to Fisher's sighing sax on "Tea & Pixies". But there is too much substance to Blasucci's work to write him off as a poseur. Many of the album's imagistic lyrics were initially published as poetry prior to being set to much. On "Tea & Pixies", he sings, I feel you touching me everywhere / Just like rain soaked clothes. The theme of authenticity rings through "Behind Closed Eyes", featuring Randal Fisher's flue and Blasucci's electric strum: Too many people holding back / The way they really feel inside. With its upbeat claps and busy tropical interlude, "Witching Hour" recalls Talking Heads: In my witching hour / In my human nature / I am flexible. Real Life Thing was composed as part of a conceptual concert film, with each individual piece portrayed in costume and setting. While Sam Blasucci maintains the breezy spirit of his earlier folk-rock songs, his new project presents him in a fuller, more versatile light.
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