I’m not sure if it speaks of a recent trend in modern music or perhaps says more about the sort of music I chose to write about, but a lot of music landing on my desk these days—well, that deemed interesting enough to make the cut—sounds as if it should have been in my record collection years ago. Not in a “heard it all before” sort of way, but in a way that suggests it holds the same songwriting values and favors sentiments and styles similar to some of the music that is now considered to be classic.
Take “California,” a reissue by Social Gravy and a precursor sent out to test the water and tease the audience ahead of their next single, “These Are The Times.” Orbiting such celestial sonic icons as The Eagles, The Allman Brothers, and Tom Petty and the Heart Breakers, “California” is a lush and luminous affair.
Drenched in gorgeous harmonies, it weaves strands of the bluesy guitar through chiming soundscapes, slow-burning from spacious, soulful roots-rock to salvos of wide-screen anthemics. It ends in crashing crescendoes of scintillating percussion and driving beats, layers of lush tones, and rich textures, musically a world away from where we first joined it.
If this doesn’t at least help usher in a return to richer and more rewarding music making, pave the way for higher sonic benchmarks and more adventurous and brilliantly extravagant music making, it will be a Big Sur-prise.
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