There's a fair bit of nepitism here, as Neil is my partner in Keep It Creative. Bare Buff is Neil McKenzie's debut album. He has been playing music for as long as I can remember, but the concept of him singing is a relatively new thing, which previously only happened if he'd had a few and there was no one else around who knew the words to Pearl Jam songs.
During some downtime, and with a fair amount of goading from his peers, he finally put together an album of songs. I had the draft mixes sent to me in dribs and drabs over the weeks he was mixing the tracks. It was initially pretty difficult to listen to one of my best mates singing. We are so used to hearing singers on the radio, that it can be quite off-putting when you know the singer.
Track 1 - The Plough - The album opens timidly with a song which celebrates taking five minutes out when you are at a party and pondering a little bit while you watch the stars. It's a song that I think almost everyone can relate to. The mixing and combination of the instruments is dense and spacey. Neil's vocals are mixed too low, which is probably a reason that the singer shouldn't mix and produce the album themselves. The mood is very ponderous.
Track 2 - Dead Saints and Gandalf - Track 2 picks up the pace and the mood. The track tells the story of traveling in Romania and alludes to a mistrust of priests. It does so with some humour and Neil manages to rhyme Diarrhea with Dacia. The track is pretty strong, even though it doesn't have a clear structure.
Track 3 - Run Away - This song is pure pop. It has one of the best choruses on the album. The song has a great interplay between two guitars where the arpeggios return to the mood of track one. while Neil may not be the greatest of singers, the dual vocal parts of the chorus are uplifting and makes the chorus instantly recognisable.
Track 5 - Forgotten Memories - After a short palette cleanser(Track 4) This is the first inaccessible song on the album. The lyrical content talks of endless summer nights spent partying with friends. These are presented over a very melancholic fingerstyle guitar passage. Different soundscapes drift in and out behind the song to emphasise the songs themes. It is a nice effect, but I'm glad every song on the album isn't like this.
Track 6 - Fluffy memories - This is a pretty simple song which trundles along with an off kilter rhythm built from a dense guitar sound played against a drum loop. The song is nice enough and it's simple construction makes it different from most songs on the album
Track 7 - Elegant Architecture Doesn't Generally Create Function - After two more experimental tracks, this is a return to form. An acoustic guitar plays some beautiful chords which are eventually joined by some valvey electric guitar to create a questioning chord progression. The vocals are very fragile in places, but this humanises and highlights the honesty of the sentiment.
Track 9 - Shadow on my shoulder - After another palette cleanser, Neil gives us a purely acoustic number. It's a good solid song. It has tinges of Neil Young circa heart of gold.
Track 10 - Whisky before bed - This is one of the strongest tracks on the album. It has a wonderful spacey slide guitar which I think is the closest Neil gets to country. Its another song which looks to past memories. It's a recurring theme of the album. Before the song can develop too much of a downer, the outro becomes more uplifting and takes the piss somewhat.
Track 11 - 10 years - This song doesn't just continue a great run. It also introduces Alfons Trosemito who plays guitar on this and track 15(someone else bar). More dense valvey arpeggios give way to a lovely guitar run from Alfons which opens up the vocals to the chorus. The melody and pop sensibilities of the track are very strong and it mixes well with the wonderful lead guitar.
Track 13 - Heaven and Earth got married today - After the final palette cleanser, we get a change of mood. It;s a song which is familiar to me; Sandra and Neil co-wrote it for a wedding a few years back and Neil recorded Sandra playing it for her album. This time it is a duet between Sandra and Neil, and we get a real beauty and the beast experience between the two vocalists. I think it works though and it's nice to hear another timbre of voice on the album.
Track 14 - Blueprint - This is more old mateiral. Its a song from a band Neil was in a few years back. It's a great song, and it makes sense that Neil has picked it up again. Neil singing it gives it a slightly more sombre mood, but it works very well and despite claiming he doesn't do Lead, the solo is pretty good.
Track 15 - Someone else bar - We get more Alfons on this track which provides a great penultimate song for the album. The guitar work and composition ease the burden of what is quite a dour song. After a wall of harmonies the guitar drips with emotion as the outro re-emphasises the fruitless frustration of the song.
Track 16 - Make History - In order not to end the album on a downer, Neil closes off with a Ukulele! Ed Vedder would be proud. Its very difficult to write a sad song on a ukulele, and this is no exception. It is a mantra to the listener(or more likely to Neil himself) on making history by writing great songs.
All in all the album is a great achievement. Neil has written, recorded and produced the album and plays almost everything on the albums this includes guitar, bass, drums, vocals, keyboards and ukuleles. This is probably the best and worse thing about the album. The achievement is impressive, but I think the songs could sound even better if they had been honed by a band and a few more heads had been involved in the final recording. I know Neil feels the same way, and tried for some time to get people motivated in Amsterdam. Given the options available I think he did very well, and this is a great first effort. The songs drip with the emption and the determination to have got these thoughts out before now. I think now that the tap has been opened we can expect much more self-penned work from Neil.
Buy the album on iTunes
Buy the album on Amazon
Neil's homepage
No comments:
Post a Comment