nearest comparison, I guess, is Springsteen's 'Nebraska' - gritty reality, wholesome honesty, artistically brave but perhaps commercially risky!
Play 90 second soundbite of 'Don't Make Waves' @ 'CD quality'
nearest comparison, I guess, is Springsteen's 'Nebraska' - gritty reality, wholesome honesty, artistically brave but perhaps commercially risky!
Detroit Rebellion tells is plain and simple, he lets darkly toned acoustic guitar provide nothing much more than a punctuative backdrop for his observational and commentarial words. I notice that the press pack tells of 'Americana mixed with post punk styles' and I suppose that's pretty close to the truth; certainly Detroit Rebellion lives up to the name (the name taken from the Detroit, Mi uprising of 1967 by-the-way!) and kinda sticks two fingers up at the popular tendencies towards massive studio enhancement and often over-embellishment - certainly Detroit Rebellion couldn't be accused of erring from the path of brutal reality and live reproducibility!
Detroit Rebellion should be applauded and rewarded rather than chastised and penalised for his gutsy take on what could loosely be described as American road music. This aint so much lo-fi and as one-pass; Detroit Rebellion, the album, is well recorded such that every important word is accessible and every single note is playing its part in providing the tension and gritty honesty of the whole. Detroit Rebellion gets it just about right on-the-money as far as adding musical poignancy and artistic down-home-boy truth!
Detroit Rebellion, with his album of the same name, won't be knockin' too many contemporary acts from their highly polished perches any day soon! There will be takers for this gritty and very enjoyable work, of course there will, but it will never be anything but a cult album; whatever, at least Detroit Rebellion is keeping music, not only live but also, very real!! I like it a lot, hope you will too!!
|
|
