{"id":22983,"date":"2022-05-19T05:30:38","date_gmt":"2022-05-19T09:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=22983"},"modified":"2022-05-19T14:05:55","modified_gmt":"2022-05-19T18:05:55","slug":"album-review-tamar-berk-start-at-the-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/05\/19\/album-review-tamar-berk-start-at-the-end\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Tamar Berk \u2013 Start at the End"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Until very recently, Tamar Berk was one of those artists with whom I was only vaguely familiar. Her name has been bandied about by those whose tastes I admire and respect, but beyond seeing her image in onscreen previews of those Facebook \u201creels,\u201d I had somehow never managed to hear any of her music.<\/p>\n

I now know that I was missing out by not exploring Berk\u2019s body of work. Long before she began a career as a solo artist, Berk fronted Starball, a Chicago melodic rock band responsible for a superb album, 2001\u2019s Superfans<\/i>. Based these days in L.A., she\u2019s been quite busy of late: in 2021 Berk released The Restless Dreams of Youth<\/em>, following it up quickly with Start at the End<\/em>.<\/p>\n

With a spare but finely-tuned arrangement aesthetic, the songs on Start at the End<\/i> follow on closely with the approach Berk employed in Starball. Her sharp melodic sense is wedded to savvy, intelligent and emotionally-charged lyrics. Excellent playing puts the emphasis on sonics that support the overall song; there\u2019s plenty of spaces between the notes. Berk\u2019s style bears hints of Harry Nilsson, and her Chicago background comes through in the tough, no-nonsense rock foundation of her songs.<\/p>\n

Berk\u2019s vocal range is impressive, and she uses it to great effect. Again it\u2019s about serving the song; she doesn\u2019t traffic in vocal acrobatics, but one comes away with the sense that \u2013 should she want to \u2013 she certainly could. Berk\u2019s vocals shift effortlessly from a near-whisper to as assertive (yet still eminently pleasing and melodic) full-on approach in tunes like \u201cTragic Endings,\u201d a highlight among the thirteen uniformly excellent and hooky tracks on Start at the End<\/i>.<\/p>\n

The lyrics concern themselves with grown-up matters: \u201cHoping This Day Won\u2019t Kill Us\u201d is a handy example. And while the songs have a personal quality, Berk crafts them in a manner that gives the songs a universality. Listeners will easily find themselves in Berk\u2019s words. Made at a difficult time during which Berk suffered the loss of her father, the album is emotionally resonant.<\/p>\n

\u201cJune Lake\u201d folds in some lovely synthesized string parts and some carefully-layered vocals, but by and large the approach on Start at the End<\/i> is a tasty kind of meat-and-potatoes rock characterized by guitar\/bass\/drums with some sparkling piano and Wurlitzer work from Berk herself.<\/p>\n

The uptempo rocker \u201cReal Bad Day\u201d is reminiscent of Katrina and the Waves, but with a harder edge that makes the song even more effective. \u201cNo Chair\u201d is melancholy, Left Banke-flavored chamber pop. The delightful \u201cDandelions in my Flowerbed\u201d is chiming powerpop with peppy hand claps and a soaring vibe; it\u2019s also the song off Start at the End<\/em> that I would have chosen as a single.<\/p>\n

As skilled a rocker as Berk clearly is, perhaps the most fully-realized piece on the album is a work of crystalline subtlety and texture, \u201cSweet Relief.\u201d In the song\u2019s four and half minutes, Berk showcases most all of her musical virtues: vocals, songwriting, arrangement and so on. Its an alluringly memorable tune that\u2019s likely to stick in the listener\u2019s memory.<\/p>\n

But then that observation could just as well be applied to most every cut on this album. Berk ends as strong as she starts, with the rousing, anthemic \u201cThis is Me Trying.\u201d It\u2019s much more than that: it\u2019s Tamar Berk succeeding.<\/p>\n

Note: The online info regarding the vinyl LP notes that the record is pressed in random colors. Mine\u2019s black. And it now occupies a prized spot on my shelf, right next to Don Berkoski<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Until very recently, Tamar Berk was one of those artists with whom I was only vaguely familiar. Her name has been bandied about by those whose tastes I admire and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22984,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,49,62,65,73],"tags":[4833],"class_list":["post-22983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indie","category-new-release","category-rawk","category-review","category-vinyl","tag-tamar-berk","cat-39-id","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22983"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23006,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22983\/revisions\/23006"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}