Nobody’s Coming to Get You, Fantastic Cat (from the Blue Rose Music release The Very Best of Fantastic Cat)
It takes some chutzpah to call your debut album “The Best Of” but Fantastic Cat darn sure deliver the goods with their first album. The group’s four singer-songwriters, each talented in their own right, come together as a cohesive and complementary outfit.
The Very Best of Fantastic Cat is an impressive collection of pop and rock. The songs vary, reflective of which songwriter contributed the song, but share a common thread in their brilliant melodies and harmonies. They flow with a freewheeling attitude and an energy that makes it clear that the group had fun creating them.
Anthony D’Amato’s “C’mon Armageddon”, the album opener, sounds like a lost Bob Dylan gem. Don DiLego’s “New Year’s Day” and Brian Dunne’s “Nobody’s Coming to Get You” are pure pop perfection while Mike Montali’s brooding “Wild & Free” simmers with percussive and harmonic intensity.
The pop goodness continues over five more tracks before the quartet close the album with the group composition “Theme From Cat Fantastic”. It’s a mostly acoustic bar room anthem that recalls, well, The Band’s theme for the Last Waltz. It’s a warm and satisfying conclusion to a stellar debut.
Go Out Nowhere, Silver Lining (from the Die With Your Boots On Records release Go Out Nowhere)
If you close your eyes while listening to Oslo, Norway’s Silver Lining, you’ll find yourself transported back to 1960’s San Francisco. More specifically, the group – which brings together members of Norway’s Northern Belle and Louien – recall the Mamas and the Papas. Enriched by vocal harmonies, their bright and airy songs ripple with melancholy and charm.
Northern Belle’s Stine Andreassen and Louien’s Live Miranda Solberg sing most of the songs, harmonizing beautifully. Notable among these are album opener “Your Everything” and the pensive ballads “I Can’t Stay” and “Days Like These”. Guitarist Halvor Falck Johansen adds his voice to the mix on the genteel “Time” and the wonderful, daydreamy title track.
Watch Me Go (Back in Time), John Calvin Abney (from the Black Mesa Records release Tourist)
John Calvin Abney declares this a pandemic album right out of the gate, singing “Off the road awhile, my mind is a turnstile” in album opener “Full Moon Friend”. What follows is a travelogue, if not literally then certainly figuratively. Over the album’s nine tracks Abney takes stock of a troubling world, not necessarily drawing conclusions but rather looking for perspective.
“Call Me Achilles” and “Holy Golden West” reminisce about life on the road. Both are filled with the rich and descriptive language that are an Abney hallmark. On Holy Goden West”, for example, he sings:
Poplars, oaks, sugar pines
Idling in the countryside
Ashes fall like snow
From cigarette skies
The magical “Watch Me Go (Back In Time)” finds him even more reflective. As an ethereal piano ushers the song along, Abney contemplates:
Watch me go back in time
Let me say I’m alright
I’ve been doing okay
But not always at night
Abney gets a bit more literal as the album progresses. “Leave Me At the Shoreline” and “Sleepwalkers” dissect failed relationships. In the former, the singer admits to his shortcomings (“Made a promise I said I would keep, But I know I can’t”) while also realizing that it leaves him unfulfilled. The singer is the one left behind in “Sleepwalkers”, admitting, “I know you weren’t being mean when you had to up and leave; I knew you just had to see about some things.”
Tourist is a wondrous album, gentle and moving.
Call It What You Will, Joe Pug (from the Nation of Heat Records release Nation of Heat Revisited)
An artist’s early work can often get lost as older fans focus on newer releases and new fans aren’t aware of the artist’s older albums (and don’t take the time to dig in). Joe Pug helps address that problem by revisiting one of his early – and classic – EPs. What makes this version different is that, while the original was essentially a solo acoustic outing, the revisited edition features full band arrangements.
As for the songs, they are some of Pug’s finest (something to be said for an artist whose entire catalog is filled with greatness). It features some of my favorite Pug lyrics, such as his simple and direct description of a painful, one-sided break-up in “Call It What You Will”: “I call today a disaster; she calls it December the 3rd”.
The rich lyrical imagery of the title track paints a discouraging picture of American society. Sadly, it seems quaint today – a reflection of the degradation we’ve suffered in recent years.
The instrumentation compliments the songs without overwhelming them. “Speak Plainly Diana” gets extra punch from sinewy electric guitars and insistent drums while an aching pedal steel adds to the heartbreak of “Call It What You Will”.
I’m Only Human, Michaela Anne (from the Yep Roc Records release Oh To Be That Free)
Some of the best music emerges from an artist’s personal exploration. Michaela Anne embarked on such a journey with the creation of Oh To Be That Free, about which she says:
I wrote this collection of songs as a simultaneous reckoning and healing. They came after a period in my life of self sabotage and unraveling by my own doing. These songs helped me look at the parts of myself I had been trying to hide. They showed light upon my shadows and helped center and focus the ways in which I wanted to grow and be in life and in my relationships.
She opens the album with the somewhat anthemic “I’m Only Human”, declaring:
I’m selfish and unstable, I’m emotional and wild and I’m hateful
I’m jaded when I’m losing, I never know what the hell I’m doing
I’m only human
The tempo gets more up-beat as the lyrical tone turns darker on “Chasing Days”. “I’m at the end of my rope, climbing past the point of holding out hope,” she sings, “I’m at the end of the road, of being on the run, my chasing days are done.”
She takes someone to task on “Dirty Secrets”, proclaiming “I won’t ever tell your dirty secrets, it’s enough to know that you know I know”. That sentiment continues on the string-laden “Does It Ever Break Your Heart” as she insists:
It doesn’t matter what you say now,
I’ve learned a lot
Like how to listen to your earnest claims
But not believe a single word you ever say”
She gets more circumspect – with even more strings – on the somber “Good People” The song reflects on a painful relationship as the singer shares, “I want to think good people hurt good people hurt, good people hurt good people hurt people too.” It’s a welcome perspective, of sorts, in an increasingly contentious world.
I Don’t Mind, Arlo McKinley (from the Oh Boy Records release This Mess We’re In)
Even though he approaches heartache with a matter-of-fact attitude, Arlo McKinley’s voice creates a sense of longing and despair in his music. “Goodbye never is the easy part, I never thought that I would be someone that would break your heart,” he sings, for example, on album opener “I Don’t Mind”.
On “Dancing Days” he declares, “If I can’t have this dance with you then I think my dancing days are through, ’cause I have wasted so much time on hearts I knew that never would be mine.” He eventually tries to put his past relationships in things into perspective, “And none of us leave as perfect as we came.”
Even when facing the prospect of love, it doesn’t come without anxiety and hesitation. He lays it bare in “Stealing Dark from the Night Sky”:
My heart is yours for the takin’
If you want to take it
I know you’re scared you might break it
Girl it’s been breakin’ all my life
I’ve been running on empty
Like the ones here before me
And all this hurt our hearts are hauling
Hurts a littl? less each day
“To Die For”, with its snarling guitar and organ, finds McKinley taking aim at false proclamations and the damage that they can cause. “I remember when you sat me down, held on to every word that you said to me,” he recalls, “You were spitting selfish lies from your mouth, now I’m older and grown and know they don’t mean a thing.”
Lest anyone think that McKinley’s glass is always half empty, the title track is a wonderful string-laden ode to finding love. “It’s proof that the bad days do get better,” he proclaims, “It’s proof that love is still alive.”
Down With Me, Eleganza (from the Dial Back Sound release Water Valley High)
Minneapolis has a storied history of spirited bar bands with a knack for great songwriting, not the least of which is the Replacements. Eleganza is the latest addition to that list.
The group lulls the listener in with the opening ballad “Ever If There’s a One”, a song ushered along by a gentle piano and guest contributor Jimbo Mathus’ resophonic guitar. Things kick into high gear immediately following, as raucous electric guitars fuel “Sick of What I Need” and the Little Feat-style boogie of “Lonesome and High”.
The classic rock touchstones continue with the Iggy Pop and the Stooges vibe of “Here Comes Trouble” and “Down With Me”. “Scared and Stupid” recalls the Faces in their prime, right down to keyboards that channel the late Ian McLagan.
Water Valley High is some good ol’ – and good time – rock and roll.
Virginia, The Sidemen (from the self-released The Sidemen)
Nick Justice and Feter Martin Homer are anything but side men. The two artists, recently coming together as The Sidemen, each have a musical history that has leaned more towards rock and blues. Together, however, they offer up enchanting, story-driven folk songs that benefit from simple and mostly acoustic arrangements. The results are wonderful.
It’s What Brings Me To You, Andrew Love (from the self-released This Is Love)
Seattle’s Andrew Jackson Love introduces himself with a mighty fine country album. This is solid honky-tonk country, shifting between acoustic guitar and fiddle gems and electric guitar fueled rave-ups.
About the author: Mild-mannered corporate executive by day, excitable Twangville denizen by night.