{"id":25921,"date":"2023-09-03T05:30:55","date_gmt":"2023-09-03T09:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=25921"},"modified":"2023-08-29T10:59:36","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T14:59:36","slug":"album-review-wreckless-eric-leisureland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2023\/09\/03\/album-review-wreckless-eric-leisureland\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Wreckless Eric \u2013 Leisureland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-25922\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/wreckless_eric_leisureland.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/wreckless_eric_leisureland.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/wreckless_eric_leisureland-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/wreckless_eric_leisureland-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>If your only knowledge of Wreckless Eric is \u201cWhole Wide World,\u201d you\u2019re in for a treat. The man has been on a sustained creative peak for ages now. He left Stiff Records in 1980 and has since made records more on his own terms, though for some years he wasn\u2019t especially prolific as a solo artist. That\u2019s since been remedied: starting in 2015 or so, Wreckless Eric (Goulding) has released a new collection of songs every couple-few years. A particular highlight is 2018\u2019s <i>Construction Time &amp; Demolition<\/i>, an album I named among <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2018\/12\/31\/musoscribes-best-of-2018\/\">that year\u2019s best<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><i>Leisureland<\/i> seems destined for a similar fate here at Musoscribe World HQ. Eric\u2019s songs are carefully crafted, uncluttered yet layered, catchy in the extreme, and intelligent without being self-consciously clever. There\u2019s a folky mindset at the core of his approach, but a folkie he ain\u2019t. I\u2019d place him more in that rarefied category of British Isles troubadours (see also: Billy Bragg, Thomas Walsh, Declan McManus, Graham Parker, etc.).<\/p>\n<p>Even when he sets aside lyrics (as on the impressionistic instrumental \u201cInside the Majestic\u201d there\u2019s a powerful sense of narrative \u2013 the feeling that there\u2019s a story here even if the words are absent \u2013 that makes Eric\u2019s music wonderfully engaging and inviting. Variety is a prominent feature: The sonic flourishes that adorn the brief linking track \u201cIntermission\u201d give it a <i>Pet Sounds<\/i> feel, and \u201cStanding Water\u201d explores a sound that recalls Orgone Box and\/or Robyn Hitchcock.<\/p>\n<p>The production aesthetic on <i>Leisureland<\/i> is reminiscent of modern-day Martin Newell, which is ot say that it places songcraft at the center of things, and wraps sturdy songs in arrangements that highlight the songs\u2019 myriad strengths. Oh, and it\u2019s professionally produced but never, ever slick. If you\u2019re wise, you\u2019ll put <i>Leisureland<\/i> on your must-hear list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If your only knowledge of Wreckless Eric is \u201cWhole Wide World,\u201d you\u2019re in for a treat. The man has been on a sustained creative peak for ages now. He left [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25922,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,49,62,65],"tags":[3383],"class_list":["post-25921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indie","category-new-release","category-rawk","category-review","tag-wreckless-eric","cat-39-id","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\/25921","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=25921"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25923,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25921\/revisions\/25923"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}