{"id":10446,"date":"2016-03-16T05:30:15","date_gmt":"2016-03-16T05:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=10446"},"modified":"2016-03-11T16:36:37","modified_gmt":"2016-03-11T16:36:37","slug":"album-review-javier-escovedo-kicked-out-of-eden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2016\/03\/16\/album-review-javier-escovedo-kicked-out-of-eden\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Javier Escovedo &#8212; Kicked Out of Eden"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-10447\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/javier_escovedo_kicked.jpg\" alt=\"javier_escovedo_kicked\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/javier_escovedo_kicked.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/javier_escovedo_kicked-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/javier_escovedo_kicked-65x65.jpg 65w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><br \/>\nIf he wished, <b>Javier Escovedo<\/b> could make a legitimate claim to music royalty. Brothers <b>Pete<\/b> and <b>Coke<\/b> are heroes of Latin jazz, known to rock fans as members of <b>Carlos Santana<\/b>&#8216;s band. Another brother, <b>Alejandro<\/b>, made a name for himself with his band <b>Rank and File<\/b> and with his own superb albums and live shows. And Javier&#8217;s niece <b>Sheila E.<\/b> (Escovedo!) is an acclaimed percussionist whose solo work is impressive (she also played with <b>Prince<\/b> and as part of <i>Ringo&#8217;s All-Starr Band<\/i>).<\/p>\n<p>Fair enough. But Javier Escovedo is no also-ran, no lesser relation. He&#8217;s also among the rocking-est in the bunch. His new album, <i>Kicked Out of Eden<\/i>, is filled with solid rocking, no-b.s. tunes and performances. Drawing from both punk and <b>Rolling Stones<\/b>-style r&amp;b-inflected rock, Escovedo arrives at a destination different from <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2012\/02\/10\/dvd-review-the-new-york-dolls-lookin-fine-on-television\/\"><b>The New York Dolls<\/b><\/a>, another act with similar influences.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"float: left; padding: 10px; width: 120px; height: 240px;\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;OneJS=1&amp;Operation=GetAdHtml&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;source=ss&amp;ref=ss_til&amp;ad_type=product_link&amp;tracking_id=musoscribe-20&amp;marketplace=amazon&amp;region=US&amp;placement=B019WUUYXQ&amp;asins=B019WUUYXQ&amp;linkId=OD6OHZIA2MD3HHZT&amp;show_border=true&amp;link_opens_in_new_window=true\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><br \/>\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The song titles \u201c(\u201cDowntown,\u201d \u201cIt Ain&#8217;t Easy\u201d) don&#8217;t rank among the most original in all of rock, but then that misses the point. Escovedo sounds like a better-adjusted <b><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2015\/01\/05\/dvd-review-looking-for-johnny\/\">Johnny Thunders<\/a><\/b> with his straight-ahead rock approach, one that&#8217;s free of artifice. He rocks, and he means it. Though the lineup varies form track to track, there&#8217;s a strong and solid core of musicians on the disc&#8217;s nine tracks. Hard-hitting squealing lead guitar, a rock-solid, four-on-the-floor rhythm section, and some tasty (if understated) keyboard work are all outstanding characteristics of <i>Kicked Out of Eden<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>And when Escovedo quiets tings down, as on \u201cDriving Around,\u201d he displays a nuanced, gentle approach that listeners might not have seen coming. Its inclusion rounds out the feel of this excellent record, and shows that he&#8217;s as achingly sincere and heartfelt when singing and playing a near-ballad as when rocking out. \u201cJust Like all the Rest\u201d is full of delightfully <b>Byrd<\/b>sy, chiming guitars. \u201cThis Side of Nowhere\u201d feels a bit like <b><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2009\/05\/23\/album-reviews-the-replacements-reissues-2008\/\">The Replacements<\/a><\/b>. \u201cBad and Good\u201d shows that Escovedo knows of, understands and appreciates 1960s garage rock. Possibly the best tune on the whole disc, the wistful \u201cSearchin&#8217; for You\u201d is reminiscent of <b>Velvet Crush<\/b> at their apex. There are no weak tracks on <i>Kicked Out of Eden<\/i>. Enthusiastically recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If he wished, Javier Escovedo could make a legitimate claim to music royalty. Brothers Pete and Coke are heroes of Latin jazz, known to rock fans as members of Carlos [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10447,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,62,65],"tags":[2652],"class_list":["post-10446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-rawk","category-review","tag-javier-escovedo","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10446"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10450,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10446\/revisions\/10450"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}