Bare Buff
Wednesday, 23 November 2011 15:03 | 
Author: The Grouch | 
Neil McKenzie emailed me asking if I'd give a listen and share my thoughts about his new album, Bare Buff. I have to say that this is a very difficult album for me to review.
In his email he said that his sound is similar to Bob Dylan and Neil Young.
Hmmmm I thought, I dig Neil Young so this could be cool. I have to say, I do not care for Dylan's music at all, even though I did see him play a 3000 seat auditorium a few years ago.
I had to go because, well, he could drop dead any moment and has contributed some very important work to this thing we call music. His show, by the way, was great - much better than anything I've heard on his records. Make no mistake his voice still sucked, but he had some kids with him that could rock. His hired gun guitarist, really saved the show in my opinion.
There are some similarities between Bob Dylan and Neil McKenzie. Both are, shall we say, vocally challenged. The thing about Neil is that he seems to lose the tune, especially when he is singing by himself. He does much better after the bass comes in. Now, in all fairness, he could be a monster player who is making some kind of statement by going down a 1/4 or 1/2 step as opposed to staying in tune (case in point track 1 - the Plough), but I doubt it. I wonder if he actually hears how he sounds?
Where as Dylan could write some cool lyrics and frankly is just so cool he can pull off whatever he wants Neil sounds to me like he is trying to write songs for Dylan, but doesn't quite have the sand to pull it off. What I hear is a guy who is trying and comes close on some tracks, but falls short. Ranting against the bourgeois and their trips to Disneyland as well as organized religion (or maybe just priests?), just sounds so old hat.
Having said that I do like the lyrical content of track 5 - Forgotten Memories, he talks about playing guitar to get rid of stress, drinking in a park then walking in the dark.
The playing on this song, however, just seems so sloppy despite it being an attempt to play a beautiful, moving, acoustic piece.
The next song though is in a lot of ways much better. Track 6 Fluffy Memories is all together a more solid track. His voice sounds better and the addition of drums seems to keep things more focused. I like this song.
Track 8 which is called Track B is a filler track if I ever heard one. It is 31 seconds long and consists of someone playing on what sounds like a synthesizer. Kind of like Track 1 on Van Halen's 1984 album, I heard it and said "What?"
This is followed up by Shadow on My Shoulder which despite his best effort, just makes me shake my head. The chorus is " I may not have the talent, I may not have the words, but it still takes some effort to write down this verse" Why not just say " I pretty much suck and have no job, so I'll strum a guitar and call it art."?
Then we come to track 10 Whiskey Before Bed. I like this song as well. I wonder who is playing the second guitar I hear, because I really dig the the slide stuff. If that is you on a dubbed track Neil, well done. The keyboard is a nice touch as well.
Track 11 - 10 Years is also a decent song. The lead guitar does some nice work that I enjoyed.
I found myself listening pretty much to the lead and nothing else.
Track 12 which is called Track C is another 30 second sound bite. This time though the music sounds a lot better than tracks A and B. The guitar is very well played.
Track 13 - Heaven and Earth Got Married Today - is the highlight of the album. The music sounds good, I find myself grooving to it. The woman who sings the female part of the duet, has a voice I find so much more appealing than Neil's. I think I would regroup and try to get her to sing lead on all of the songs.
The last song I find worth mentioning is track 14 Blueprint. The music is cool, there is some righteous guitar work, the bass does some funky runs and the vocals actually sound good - at least they fit the music.
So what is the bottom line?
I'll give Neil 1 and 1/2 scowls out of 5 on the Grouch scale. The album is too long with 16 tracks most of which are frankly, not all that good. Then there are some tracks that are gems like tracks 11 and 14 which have some nice guitar and track 13 which features a woman who can sing.
He did tell me that the album is available on both Amazon and iTunes, but didn't send me a link.
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Last Updated (Wednesday, 23 November 2011 15:24)