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| From | "Michael Adelsheim" <madelsheim@adelsheimvineyard.com> |
| Subject | Anyone listening to Chris Richards? |
| Date | Thu, 28 May 2009 20:54:32 -0700 |
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As someone who has dug his way (if it's an "underground", I guess you
have to "dig" to get to it) back into the world of power pop over the
last few years, I was slowish in picking up on the amazing Chris
Richards. I am pretty shocked that I haven't seen much mention on the
list of this year's release - Chris Richards and the Subtractions, Sad
Sounds of the Summer.
His sound is certainly old-school (some of the chugging rhythms of the
70's with direct tonal links - such as jangle - to the 60's). To my
sensibilities, he has it all...energy, beautiful ringing guitar tones,
an ability to produce anthemic guitar riffs, a strong and sweet/biting
lead voice, wonderful harmony singing, song melodies that are at the
same time in the wheelhouse of power pop yet fresh sounding, a great
sense of how to place songs in order to produce a very satisfying
dynamic, and lyrics about love that may be smart but are at least
cryptic enough to be extremely interesting. A couple of the singers
I've heard echoes of are Dwight Twilley and (yes) Michael
Carpenter...just to give you a range by comparison.
The wonderful Todd Holmes (from Chris's previous band, Hippodrome) plays
bass, and the amazing Larry Grodsky (from another earlier band, The
Pantookas) is the drummer.
And it is one of the few albums (perhaps less than a couple hundred)
that I've heard in my 50 + years as a music geek that I always listen to
straight through.
The only (minor) quibble I have comes from the position of being a major
lyric fanatic. Chris has two major word moves - one...he likes to slyly
subvert a standard phrase, as he does when he sings, " I can't sell you
what to feel," in the song "I, Miss July", and two...he likes
approximate rhymes, as in, "and if it get's too hard I'll, try not to
beg or borrow" in "Beg Or Borrow". Thus, these two tendencies combine to
make the few times his words get buried or slurred (did I mention he
usually has fine diction?) somewhat frustrating. Such can even obscure
a whole song's meaning. Not the world's worst problem - I love a
mystery or three - but I may have to eventually try to get a hold of him
to beg for a lyric sheet.
Here's the myspace page to hear a few of the songs all the way through:
http://www.myspace.com/chrisrichardsandthesubtractions
He's available from the usual suspects. (I call it - so far - my album
of the year....)
ADELSHEIM
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