Nominated by: GK
Music club: Wander to Wozza's
This album would have been a complete no-brainer for Gregarious G-String. It includes all of the GG-S patented tropes: tasteful guitar; a consistently languid pace; lived in, almost gruff, vocals; and tasteful horn arrangements punctuating and complementing the tasteful vocals.
It's not a million miles from Mark Knopfler's solo albums.
I find it a pleasant listening experience - no rough edges to ruffle the feathers. But I like rough edges.
Favourite tracks: even though the lyrics are basic, Louisa has some harmonica (I'm a big fan), handclaps, a slightly more pacey approach, some tasteful guitar and organ licks (I'm a big fan); Shiny Moon sounds like a JJ Cale song (slide guitar, muffled beat, easy vocals and all), and as such works as a relaxed back porch tune. I almost thought they were going to break into Cajun Moon at one point.
Weak areas: I struggled to differentiate many of the other tracks because of their sameness. Is it me or do the first three tracks begin exactly the same way with that choppy reggae-ish guitar sound? It often felt a bit too much like music you'd put on in the background at a dinner party which is all well and good, but I prefer music with a bit more oomph and presence, and I don't have too many dinner parties these days.
The end of the album is problematic - Hard Feeling and Honeymoon are so sloooooooooow. And 11 plus minutes of sloooooooow is too much maan, especially the last 4 minutes of it. Freebird it ain't!
All up, I'll give it 3 stars because these guys can play - there is nothing offensive about the album, it's mostly pleasant background music and I didn't mind the relistens. But by the end of three times through I needed some Office Dog to cleanse the palate.
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