GET YOUR HISTORY OF MUSIC HERE!
by
NeoBoy
Is there anything Michael Barron can't do? From the first tune I ask myself - what IS this? The hillbillies are alive with the sound of the Velvet Underground. Stephen Foster behind Foster Grants. They say to this day scholars can't be sure how Rembrandt actually got some of the paint onto the canvas. Brush? Knife? Levitation? The technique is illusive. Is that a sign of genius? No. Art fails if your first thought is - how did he do it? The more interesting question is 'what' and then - why did he do it? Tradition and myth tell us the to go with the most simplistically compelling answer - because he just HAD to. That holds here. I can't recall the last time I heard so much great music awash in every possible influence made anew; the lyrics display a deep inwardness matched by an aching desire to reach out to others. Though its new each time, Nick Drake comes to mind but only as a type - this is a very different animal. Different not least because it so very electric - the layering and string bending going on here would have made Les Paul proud. Especially on two 'harder' numbers in the middle of the disc. Is it possible to drown in electric guitar? Man overboard! The why is linked to the what. Both instrumentally and lyrically Barron is all multi-layered coming and going; tough enough to stay, tough enough to go, tough enough to love, tough enough to bury the dead. I can only assume if this conflict did not express itself his head would explode. Lucky for us he pushed 'record' instead. HOMO RADIO - BUY IT! TURN IT UP! I dare you not to cry and smile and maybe even dance around in your kitchen a little. I know I did.
