When I overheard someone say long ago that Dallas sucked, I took that as truth and ran with it. Already a angst-ridden teenager at the time, I looked for the ugliness in everything. It wasn't until someone set me straight, only over the last fifteen years to say they were proud of this city. Again, I took that and ran with it too.
Gideon King's City Blog album is a tribute to the city of New York, which is far more deserving than my city is. We're small fry compared to the Big Apple and at my age, but this album also makes me a little anxious when people express that kind of loyalty.
Because people are picking up and moving to other cities all of the time. Rather than refer to the more extreme case of the refugee crisis in Europe, I'll stick closer to home to report that a large population Californians are relocating to Texas. But I doubt it's as overwhelming the fact that everyone goes to New York.
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It's like Marc Maron when he asks the opening questions in his podcast as to where their guest grew up, as if the region truly defines the person, which is at the root of what contributes to my anxiety.
I mean, do I sound like I'm from Texas? I can't pin down an accent unless it's over-exaggerated for comedic effect for my entertainment, but then again we do have Boston.
The track New York Is is written in that traditional 70's style that I've always associated with New York from ads I saw on television when I was a kid and I'm not alone on that because John Legend & The Roots did it too.
It's not as punctual as those examples and not the most punched up track on the album but it certainly stands out as an example of that New York loyalty I was talking about.
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And by the way, for those of us who haven't been to New York, our curiosity is usually rubbed the wrong way with stories of that city's temperament, so I after giving this a background listen, letting it naturally sway me, I put it to the test by playing it while I was at different emotional states.
See In Double is too lofty and cocky for its own good.
The title track City Blog is a great opener for a night on the town. It's Metheny smooth and when it gets to the chorus, the melodic climb makes it pop. And when it feels right, you don't have to go through the cycle of a few verse chorus verse before getting into a solo part. That happens right after the first time around and it becomes immersible.
Down is one another urban howler are top notch favorites that effectively yank people out of any dreadful state with Marc Broussard's warm tenor. I mean, fuck Sam Smith, right!?
And by the way, the assortment of talent on here is overwhelming if you know these names like Broussard, Elliott Skinner and other heavy hitters then it certain has every reason to be as deserving of the urban landscape it wants to present.
That still doesn't mean that I have the patience to wait at the restaurant for Friendship Cliche even though it's charming company with what I think was Donny Mccaslin's flute, putting some character in the track but it's still a little too lazy for me.
But What Say You was completely disarming for those moments where I felt as if I were listening to a Mazzy Star track. When Grace Weber owns a song, this is easily the one. It's a track on it's own as it allows me to drift easily. And either I wrote about this before or I've thought it out loud but drifting has it's consequences and we go back to that anxious feeling I was talking about where an easy going thing can go terribly wrong at any moment, but that doesn't happen here.
My temperament is stubborn and hard to tame because at the worst, I hated the track Glide because it didn't excel far enough to keep up with the rest of the album's best moments.
And I don't imagine that Gideon's wants to display the bad parts of his city, which like any city can be overlooked. What he's putting on display is easy, it's all about New York's personality as interpreted by these artists.
Musicianship notwithstanding, the delivery is at the very least what you expect from anyone who knows their scales but the arrangements are creative and they're what impress me the most.
At first listen, I thought the mix was too subtle in some places like it was with K.D. Lang's Drag but I was wrong about that. It's rich and glittery but it's also modest.
At the same time I feel these sets of tracks make the entire album appropriately distant from how it views New York. It's reluctant to embrace it completely, being entirely open and it remains objective.
This isn't one of those albums where they spotlight every instrument solo as they go into one, though there's no doubt they do that during their live shows. Which reminds this old man about the time I saw Remy Shand and made the mistake of doubting his improvisation skills when the kick drum pedal went out during their show. Boy oh boy!, he sure taught your pappy a lesson when he free-styled for bout thirty minutes while other capable dudes went into the streets to look for another kick-pedal.
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I think the best example of this is with the track Just Play. Check out at 2:33 when the track grows out of it's small beginning with Kevin Hays on the piano and Gideon King on the guitar, which has that Remy Shand feel to it.
I feel like Gideon is very really into New York for the moment he's having this one night stand. He's legitimately into it and sometimes there are some dull moments, and even though they're both lying there and glowing, he's up and gone before New York wakes up, and he's out there telling everyone about it. The feelings that follow is anyone's guess.
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