Zen & the Art of Mixing<\/i><\/a>.) So, one check in the plus column before even removing the shrinkwrap.<\/p>\nOnce the outer plastic was discarded, I opened the digipak gatefold and saw more names I recognized. Dave Gregory (formerly of XTC) plays guitar, slide guitar, organ, Ebow, Mellotron and strings. His presence on a recording session is always, always<\/i> a good thing. The same is true for guitar wizard Mike Keneally, former Zappa \u201cstunt guitarist\u201d who these days works solo. In addition to guitar, he plays piano, vibraphone and recorders on I hope you are okay<\/i>.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t recognize any of the other names (including the artist himself) but that was okay<\/i>, so to speak. With this quickly-accumulated knowledge, I knew I had to listen. And I was already predisposed to like it, even though I had no clue as to the style of the music I\u2019d soon hear. Prog was my best guess.<\/p>\n
Nope, not prog. \u201cBecause I Love You Too Much\u201d opens with piano, sampled\/scratch percussion and gently picked guitar, plus McAllister\u2019s emotionally expressive voice. If the song reminds me of anything, it\u2019s Zero 7, that trip-hop\/downtempo collective. But \u201cSomething in the Water\u201d has a twangy guitar arrangement redolent of Creedence Clearwater Revival, crossed with a melodic sense that recalls Fountains of Wayne. Nice, and a surprise after that opening track.<\/p>\n
\u201cRoll On\u201d has jazzy gurgling organ and a Stones-y guitar crunch. Some tasty woo-hoo-hoo<\/i> vocals and Gregory\u2019s slide only reinforce that character, but the song itself isn\u2019t derivative at all. Some otherworldly guitar squalls are buried in the mix (but still give character) on \u201cGet Yourself Together.\u201d the hypnotic beat and McAllister\u2019s close-mic\u2019d vocals create a dreamy feel. The ethereal \u201cNo\u201d recalls Elliot Smith, and features some lovely and understated sonorous guitar work.<\/p>\n
Gregory\u2019s strings adorn the romantic shoegaze\/downtempo of \u201cThe 3rd<\/sup> Side of An Egg.\u201d The song brings 10cc to mind, and \u2013 as with every cut on the album \u2013 the production and arrangement are superb. The stuttering \u201cOn it Like a Narcotic\u201d rocks harder. Quite catchy, it\u2019s among the most radio-ready (is that still a thing?) tune on the disc. \u201cSunshine Ladies\u201d hearkens back to AM gold pop music.<\/p>\nA thundering piano chord launches \u201cA Letter to My Son.\u201d After that, it settles into a piano ballad vaguely in the style of Billy Joel or Bruce Hornsby. The disc concludes with another piano-centric tune, \u201cSailor\u2019s Waltz.\u201d McAllister\u2019s breathy vocals and gentle vocal harmonies \u2013 plus more evocative string work \u2013 end the record on a contemplative note.<\/p>\n
As it turns out, the credits on the album didn\u2019t really provide a useful roadmap for the music; it wasn\u2019t at all what I might have expected. But from an open-minded critical perspective, I hope you are okay<\/i>. is much more than okay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ll admit it: sometimes my approach to a new album is colored by what I know about it, even before I have any sense of what it sounds like. That […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25797,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,51,62,65],"tags":[5212],"class_list":["post-25796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-pop","category-rawk","category-review","tag-steve-mcallister","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25796","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=25796"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29112,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25796\/revisions\/29112"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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I\u2019ll admit it: sometimes my approach to a new album is colored by what I know about it, even before I have any sense of what it sounds like. That was the case upon receiving I hope you are ok.<\/i>, the somewhat idiosyncratically-titled album from Steve McAllister. The packaging itself didn\u2019t provide any useful hints as to the character of the music within: no dude-with-guitar or beardo-with-fiddle etc. And the CD didn\u2019t come with a one-sheet (hey, I know, creating those things costs money).<\/p>\n