Today’s three are all new, indie releases.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/david_duchovny.jpg\")
David Duchovny \u2013 Every Third Thought
\n<\/i><\/b>A confession, right up front: when this album landed on my desk, my first thought was, \u201cUh-oh. Another vanity project from an actor who maybe played some guitar back in college.\u201d A bit of belated investigation demonstrated that my attitude was wholly unfair. Duchovny is something of a Renaissance Man, having done much more than acting (he\u2019s authored novels, directed and so forth).<\/p>\n
Of course none of those things in and of themselves mean that Every Third Thought<\/i> (his second album) is any good. Alas, it is, and even more. Enlisting the aid of many of the same personnel used on his 2015 debut Hell or Highwater<\/i>, Duchovny has crafted an album (a double LP in its vinyl configuration, which is what I have on hand) that\u2019s successful on many levels.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a kind of heartland American (but not<\/i> Americana) vibe to the songs on this record, with squalling, alterna-rock guitar at the center. And Duchovny\u2019s voice is effective in a rock context. The opening track, \u201cHalf Life\u201d is as good as anything from acts like Goo Goo Dolls, Soul Asylum or even Gin Blossoms; in fact all three of those acts are handy touchstones to give the uninitiated a sens of what Every Third Thought<\/i> sounds like.<\/p>\n
Duchovny and his musical associates (producer-musicians Colin Lee, Mitch Stewart and Pat McCusker, all members of Boston-based band Weather) collectively have a good knack for melody and arrangement; the songs breeze by if you let them, but they stand up to closer inspection as well. The record is of a piece with its predecessor; sequence the two records one after the other and you won\u2019t even notice the transition.<\/p>\n
Perhaps Duchovny\u2019s musical career is a sideline, a temporary diversion or respite from his primary endeavors. But you\u2019d never know it from the care and effort that has clearly gone into making this fine record.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/imperial_sound.jpg\")
The Imperial Sound \u2013 The New AM
\n<\/i><\/b>A soul\/r&b\/pop band with a jazz ensemble configuration (guitar\/bass\/keys\/drums\/sax\/trumpet), Chicago-based group the Imperial Sound has the chops to do pretty much any damn thing it wants. And what it chooses to do on its debut (released on vinyl) is make pop music that swings, evoking the vibe of \u2013 as the title telegraphs \u2013 AM radio of the early \u201870s.<\/p>\n
The band\u2019s strategy is a solid one. Providing ace backup (think of Memphian Scott Bomar\u2019s Bo-Keys, or for that matter any top-level middle America ensemble), the group cedes the lead vocal spot for half of its tunes to a rotating cast, not unlike Scott Bradlee\u2019s Postmodern Jukebox. The thinking (and admittedly I\u2019m guessing here) is to pick the singer whose talents best suit the material. But lead guitarist Rich Mosher is a capable and expressive vocalist himself, and he takes the lead spot on the remaining songs.<\/p>\n
The Imperial Sound\u2019s instrumental balance is just about perfect: the lead guitar lines sting when they\u2019re supposed to, and the horns \u2013 prominent and soulful but never overstated \u2013 add signature feel to every tune. If you can imagine modern yet timeless pop music informed equally by, say, Andrew Gold, Wilson Pickett and Dusty Springfield, you might have a sense of what The New AM<\/i> sounds like. But here\u2019s a better idea: get the album and enjoy it for yourself. Highly recommended.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/smoking_flowers.jpg\")
The Smoking Flowers \u2013 Let\u2019s Die Together
\n<\/i><\/b>With an album title like that, you might be expecting a goth-tinged album. And the evocative cover photo may conjure thought of Judy Tenuta (hey, am I the only one who remembers her?). But both of those would be pretty off base. This Nashville-based duo \u2013 Kim and Scott Collins \u2013 is more in the tradition of Brill Building pop filtered through a melodramatic, theatrical sensibility that recalls both Jim Steinman (a la Meat Loaf) and Bruce Springsteen.<\/p>\n
Well, at least on the opening track, \u201cYoung & Brave,\u201d they do. The vibe quickly shifts gear. \u201cRip it Off\u201d is blooze of the sort that crosses Janis Joplin and Aerosmith; whether that\u2019s a good thing or not is a decision left to you, gentle reader. The duo does earn points for the song, though: with a lyric like \u201csteal the beat like Led Zeppelin,\u201d the song is itself a self-conscious pastiche of endless rock tropes.<\/p>\n
For me, the title alone of \u201cHere 4 U Now\u201d loses any good will that last tune might have earned; the letters-and-numbers-as-words thing was played out when Prince did it. The song itself has loads of synthesizers and a buzzing\/droning guitar that places it in a kind of \u201890s aesthetic.<\/p>\n
The album continues to serve up one stylistic left turn after another. \u201cWoodland Avenue\u201d has a bit of Americana-meets-spaghetti western. \u201cOutlive Me\u201d is soaring alternative heartland rock. This is an album that \u2013 it seems to me \u2013 can\u2019t quite decide what it wants to be. But one can\u2019t easily write off Let\u2019s Die Together<\/i>, because thought it suffers from a bit of an identity crisis (you might call that eclecticism; potato, potahto<\/em>), the Collinses are pretty darn effective at whatever style they set their minds to.<\/p>\n Bonus points for including a lyric sheet and a color poster in the LP sleeve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today’s three are all new, indie releases. David Duchovny \u2013 Every Third Thought A confession, right up front: when this album landed on my desk, my first thought was, \u201cUh-oh. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15391,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,49,51,62,65,69,73],"tags":[3582,3583,3584],"class_list":["post-15390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-americana","category-new-release","category-pop","category-rawk","category-review","category-soul","category-vinyl","tag-david-duchovny","tag-the-imperial-sound","tag-the-smoking-flowers","cat-6-id","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","cat-69-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15390","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=15390"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15476,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15390\/revisions\/15476"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}