Italian Indie rocker Ed Abbiati is back with his latest solo album To The Light that follows on from 2020's Beat The Night as Edward builds on the stories told on that album and his work with ACC, The Dirty Devils and Lowlands. As usual he's joined by Maurizio "Gnola" Glielmo, Mike Slow Mo Brenner, Stiv Cantarelli along with Enrico Fossati, Mattia Martini, Marco Andrea "Francis" Carnelli, Meaghan Kyle, Joey Huffman David Henry, Max Paganin and Andres Villani. The album was produced by Ed and Maurizio it was mixed and edited by Chris Peet and mastered by Alex McCullogh.
The album opens with Three Chords And The Truth a great bruised Celtic rocker about the hope you'll be saved by the power of music, but of course you get waylaid, caught up in all the sex drugs and rock & roll, through it all your best friend is still with you. As you sway along drunkenly raising your glasses in the air saluting all the good times you had, while regretting a few things along the way.
Nothing Left To Say drives along as all the pain at the parting of the ways, it's all gone wrong, but you have no idea how to articulate the feelings you can lay bare with a good crunchy riff an a steady beat.
Just About Now the guitars are chiming, as Ed reminisces for the days when everything still felt good, he still had hope for the future, then he turned on the news and well it was like the end of days, as a violin adds poignancy to the feelings that he's reached a point of no return, but isn't sure where we go from here, but at the very least a Clarence Clemons style sax solo is on the cards.
Rags (London W12, 1998) Takes Ed back to the good old bad old days of living and hanging out a couple of miles from here, this is a folk blues of the memories of the fun they had while struggling to get by, getting sucked in to all the madness of late 90's Shepherds Bush, he might be within those city limits as he stares at the rags he was given, that probably came from Stuarts.
The action then switches to The Coast Of Barcelona as he seems ahead of the game, as another friend from W12 has just moved to Barca, this feels like he's sitting high up on Montjuic with a glass of vino looking out at the possibilities as the organ drives things along as he considers the ways life could go from here.
The title track To The Light looks back at how alone he felt in a big city, before finding himself, somewhere along that road redemption came, among the organ and guitars things started to get better.
Going Downtown takes that familiar trope of going out on another busy night out, time to go bar hopping, hoping to hear some good music, find some good company and see those bright lights like he knows what Richard and Linda felt all those years ago, this has a good desert blues rock feel to it.
Stairs To The Stars slows things down as thoughts of if and how he will be remembered, if at all in the future, what will it take for people to still talk about him in a 100 years time, the trumpet is rather downbeat against the lap steel guitar.
One Step At A Time takes us on a ride downtown looking for a good time as the brass section lifts the mood, as they go in search of beauty and the good life, but they will have to get there One Step At A Time.
Love Note is a few words sent to his folks about his hopes for the future, that things will in fact be ok, with just the power of well arranged and produced music, everyone will be able to smile and be happy once more, if only it was that simple. So grab some of that cheap wine and join Ed and his friends looking towards better days while never forgetting those we've lost in the last few years.
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