New York based STEVEN ALVARADO definitely has a knack for getting close to a good tune. He's a US singer songwriter in a long tradition with some mighty talents. TOM PETTY and BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN would be your K2 and your Everest. On that scale, Alvarado comes in as more of a foothill, but he's worth a good second look.
I'm on his side because there's a technical roughness to the recording that puts the quality of the song and heart of the man right up to the front. Voice and guitar are both on the lumpy side. "Sessions" is an accurate title word. Drumming is basic, playing is rough and ready, the voice even shifts off the note now and then.
His approach to production is equally loose. Just as one example "I Feel the Rain" takes a slow tempo eight bars of undistinguished and repeated guitar and drums before launching the vocal. This would work fine on stage, as the audience gradually started to pay attention. But on a recording it does sound a bit ponderous.
The best of the songs have the universal quality that would make for good cover versions. "I'm tryin to Tell You" does sing out as a tune, with a good chorus. " Morphilia (A Girl I Knew)" gets a nice organ part going, and follows through with a bitter sweet ballad that works well enough. "Wildflowers" has a big universal feel to it. "I Know You Loved Me" uses a mournful accordion to underpin a seafaring sort of song that invites close listening.
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The least strong of them have a predictable and generic sound that means they struggle to break through the barriers that come up when chunka chunka guitar bashing and growled couplets string themselves on for four minutes at a time. "(Howl) Pushing Up Daisies" tries to evoke "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and Alan Ginsberg, with a little Beatlesy backwards space noise thrown in. But it doesn't work for me. Perhaps that's because of its high ambition. One or two others are poorer, but they don’t set themselves any targets. "Mad At The World" gets of to a bad start and never recovers. Most performers would have dropped it from the set at an early stage in its life – Alvarado goes big production on it by dropping a hectoring, almost hysterical Spanish voice over the top. Deeply unpleasant.
So it's not great, but in a head to head with JAMES BLUNT, I'd go for ALVARADO's gruff honesty any day.
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