It's always a pleasure to get a new album by Chris Cacavas or even one he plays on and this is no exception. It also adds to the Green On Red Italian crossover, only unlike Dan Stuart who has recently collaborated with Italians Sacri Cuori and in particular the band's main man Antonio Gramenteri (and of course Chris Cacavas as well), on this album Chris collaborates with Edward Abbiati of Lowlands fame and all the compadres they could round up.
The artwork for this album is brilliant and really should be either on a 12 inch vinyl sleeve or a huge poster to be framed and put on a wall. All praise to Deborah Maggioncalda for the design that ensures this is an album you need for the artwork alone!
But then, once I started listening, I just want to play it again and again. From the opening rumble of Against The Wall this album grabbed me. Yes they might have their backs against the wall but that only helps to make this all the better and the fact that this was recorded in 5 days helps to make it feel like a proper collaboration.
Me and The Devil isn't a Robert Johnson tune but does feature some wicked harmonica playing from Richard Hunter which works really well against the Neil Young-like guitars. Oh Baby, Please starts off sounding like it's an outtake from the soundtrack to Grease before the keyboards kick in and it becomes something far better: a yearning song with some creative use of a sax keeping the time going while Ed finds all the ways he can to beg her to let him in.
The Week Song has a quiet piano-led opening that is reminiscent of Sweetness and Light-era Steve Wynn and you need to listen to the vocals to hear the sad little story that unfolds of another love lost. Hay Into Gold sounds like they are sitting in the desert rather than playing in a barn, though said barn might have had some hay on the ground and it has the sort of insistent lyrics that you'll never forget.
Long Dark Sky seems to be a skewed re-write of Born to Be Wild and yes these guys would lie to you, but by the time this chugs at high speed into the guitar solo you won't care, you'll have submitted to everything they want and you won't run from them. This should be on the soundtrack to several movies if there's any justice.
Can't Wake Up isn't as somnambulant as the title might suggest. The Other Side sounds a bit like it could have been on Chris' album Anonymous: it has that slow burning, yearning sound Chris Cacavas does so well. It's gentle music with not so gentle lyrics that might just persuade her to let you be by her side.
I'll See Ya is a slow, sombre goodbye sort of song, featuring nice picking on an acoustic as they try to sound like Leonard Cohen but are a bit too quick for that.Closing the album, Rest Of My Life sounds like a eulogy for the lost friends in a life about to end. A sad ending to a very good album indeed.
If you have the version with the additional CD, disc 2 features the demos that they recorded on an I-phone giving us stripped down versions of the songs on the album. The opening Backs Against The Wall is a very basic strummed guitar and yet the vocals are pretty similar to the finished version, although I almost expected to hear some clinking bottles in the background instead of the boots tapping out the beat.
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Can't Wake Up follows and the vocals sound like they are just sort of figuring it out over an acoustic guitar backing that is the backbone of the finished song with some nice instructions spoken over it.
Hay Into Gold is stripped back and ready to be built on a nice sparse blueprint. I'll See Ya sounds like they are sitting on a porch ruminating with an acoustic guitar and a bottle of Grappa.
Long Dark Sky, the instrumental version, has them saying where the chorus and changes go as the music gets worked out. It's a nice insight into the songs structure. This then goes into a vocal run through that seems a tad hurried as they get to grips with the song as if they've started running while playing the song.
Oh Baby Please starts off slow and careful but Ed's vocals are really good even as someone tells him "one more verse." He believes every word he sings like a fallen angel as he begs to be let in.
Rest Of My Life sounds like the sketch it is ahead of becoming a fully-fledged song. It's cool to hear as a work in progress but it needs the flesh of the completed article. The second version that adds a second vocalist and some cool background noises is much better as the harmonies work nicely and it is more rounded.
Me and The Devil really works as a stripped down demo. For all its shortcomings, it's almost as good as the completed article and the acoustic guitar solo is well worth hearing more than a couple of times. The Other Side sounds even more like an outtake from Anonymous in this solo acoustic form and that's no bad thing. I could easily hit repeat time and again. The Week Song, meanwhile. feels almost like a confession on this demo version.
I'd recommend the single CD version to all fans of cool Americana and the 2CD version is a must have for all fans of Chris Cacavas and Edward Abbiati.
But whatever you do buy at least one of the two versions from Appaloosa Records online
Or from: Harboursong online
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