{"id":25517,"date":"2023-06-22T05:30:16","date_gmt":"2023-06-22T09:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=25517"},"modified":"2023-06-22T14:48:36","modified_gmt":"2023-06-22T18:48:36","slug":"album-review-the-anderson-council-the-devil-the-tower-the-star-the-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2023\/06\/22\/album-review-the-anderson-council-the-devil-the-tower-the-star-the-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: The Anderson Council — The Devil, The Tower, The Star, The Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Album cover art often offers clues to the music contained within. But this isn\u2019t always the case. The latest album from The Anderson Council features a cover that uses tarot card images as the focal points of its cover art. That fact might lead the uninitiated to think that The Devil, The <\/i>T<\/i>ower, The Star, The Moon<\/i> is a progressive album by a group that sounds like Genesis, or maybe a UK folk release a la Pentangle.<\/p>\n

Such assumptions would be seriously side of the mark; intentionally or otherwise, the album\u2019s artwork is an example of misdirection. But then this band has long employed red herrings. Even their name is something of a McGuffin: an inside joke that may well be lost on casual listeners, the name comes from combining the surnames of two otherwise obscure country bluesmen: Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. As you might have noticed, another band used those artists\u2019 names for their own purposes. But does The Anderson Council sound like Syd Barrett and his pals? Not really.<\/p>\n

In fact, The Anderson Council aren\u2019t even British. They\u2019re from New Jersey. And it\u2019s that piece of information that provides the first bit of relevant clues to their sound. Music lovers who appreciate The Smithereens and The Grip Weeds \u2013 Garden State acts both \u2013 are likely to embrace the sounds of The Anderson Council as well. Signed to the reactivated Jem Records, they\u2019re of a piece with like-minded power pop ravers on the label. Led by guitarist and songwriter Peter Horvath, the band has been around for more than two decades, with more than a half dozen albums to its credit.<\/p>\n

The songs on The Devi<\/i>l<\/i> are supremely well-crafted, with chiming melodies and sharply defined melodies. Horvath\u2019s songwriting is inventive and accessible; his ideas result in catchy songs that hold up to close scrutiny. And he\u2019s a fan of the left-run middle-eight, a means of adding variety and interest to a song while remaining within the convention of the three-minute (or thereabouts) pop song. The Anderson Council is among the most gimmick-free acts in a genre rife with bands guilty of that misstep.<\/p>\n

The songs on The Devil roar with arena-sized hooks, with power and passion. Horvath\u2019s vocals are always out fornt, but the backing harmonies \u2013 either by bassist Simon Burke, guitarist Michael Potenza or (possibly and\/or) multitracked Horvath \u2013 are key to the appeal of the tunes. Production by Grip Weeds\u2019 Kurt Reil (who also adds bits of keyboards) is top-notch as well. The muscular arrangements showcase the songs in the best possible light. If clich\u00e9-free powerpop is your thing, The Devil, The Tower, The Star, The Moon<\/i> should be on your short list of upcoming acquisitions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Album cover art often offers clues to the music contained within. But this isn\u2019t always the case. The latest album from The Anderson Council features a cover that uses tarot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25518,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,55,62,65],"tags":[4323],"class_list":["post-25517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-powerpop","category-rawk","category-review","tag-the-anderson-council","cat-49-id","cat-55-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25517","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=25517"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25519,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25517\/revisions\/25519"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}