{"id":1048,"date":"2016-10-28T13:53:47","date_gmt":"2016-10-28T17:53:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/?p=1048"},"modified":"2016-11-08T22:42:36","modified_gmt":"2016-11-09T03:42:36","slug":"new-release-roundup-alejandro-escovedo-and-lou-barlow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/2016\/10\/28\/new-release-roundup-alejandro-escovedo-and-lou-barlow\/","title":{"rendered":"New Release Roundup: Alejandro Escovedo and Lou Barlow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Music <\/strong>
\n1. Alejandro Escovedo<\/a> \u2013 Burn Something Beautiful
\nIt\u2019s been a decade since Alejandro Escovedo released Boxing Mirror, the album that marked his comeback after a bout with Hep C left him unable to tour and make a living from his music. That kicked off a six-album stretch of fresh, vital rock and roll that extends to his latest, Burn Something Beautiful, out today. Burn is a slight departure for Escovedo. His previous three albums were produced by Tony Visconti and co-written with Chuck Prophet. The new album was produced by and co-written with Scott McCaughey and Peter Buck, who have pushed Escovedo even further toward his Ian Hunter\/Marc Bolan influences. You can hear it on the churning fuzz of \u201cShave the Cat\u201d and \u201cBeauty of Your Smile,\u201d straight from the \u201cBang A Gong (Get It On)\u201d template. Escovedo and Hunter have always shared a knack for unabashedly emotional personal storytelling, and that you can hear on \u201cSuit of Lights,\u201d a duet with Kelly Hogan. Another of Escovedo\u2019s fine attributes \u2013 his off-kilter sense of humor \u2013 is also well-represented here. He speak-sings lines like \u201cThe ghosts of the doorman\/Still smells like piss and howl for no reason\/At the ghosts of long shoremen\u201d and \u201cThe candyman and the starman\/Are taking trips from the shaman\/Who\u2019s working under the webcam\/All angles and long shots.\u201d And then the punchline, \u201cNo one can take the beauty of your smile.\u201d <\/p>\n

As much as Burn Something Beautiful<\/em> bristles with that aforementioned vitality, there\u2019s also a looming sense that the rock and roll trip has been fun, but everything comes to an end. \u201cAnd I wonder why I don\u2019t even wanna play guitar anymore\/When there\u2019s no stories left to sing\/That\u2019s the end of everything,\u201d he sings on \u201cI Don\u2019t Want To Play Guitar Anymore.\u201d Escovedo has survived the rock and roll life, and now he\u2019s got to contend with the ghosts of those who didn\u2019t. \u201cI miss my friend with the heartbeat smile,\u201d he sings on \u201cHeartbeat Smile.\u201d The last two songs make for an especially bracing one-two punch. On \u201cFarewell to the Good Times,\u201d he sings, \u201cIf the world\u2019s too fast for living\/And dying so easy to so\/Look out any broken window\/Is it time to see it through.\u201d The album is capped off by \u201cThought I\u2019d Let You Know,\u201d a simple melody floating above skittering saxophone and guitars, a throbbing synth, and rolling drums. \u201cJust thought I\u2019d let you know,\u201d he sings, \u201cThe party\u2019s over\/There\u2019s no more furniture left to break\/Glasses left to smash.\u201d And yet, he sings of children with pretty hair who \u201csing like their mothers\u201d before Hogan sings the refrain, \u201cWe\u2019re not alone\/We are all alone.\u201d The bones are brittle, he says, but noisy. And they might make way for the next group of pretty voices eventually, there\u2019s still plenty of wonderful noise yet to be made. <\/p>\n