Jimmy Gnecco - The Heart
Rating
RIYL
OursJeff Buckley
Muse
Release Date
07/20/2010
Label
Bright AntennaTracklist
1. Rest Your Soul2. Light On The Grave
3. Mystery
4. The Heart
5. Bring You Home
6. These Are My Hands
7. Days
8. Gravity
9. I Heard You Singing
10. Take A Chance
11. Darling
12. Light On The Grave (Reprise)
13. Patiently Waiting
14. It's Only Love
15. Talk To Me
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Sometimes the true test of something is to look into the heart of it (holy cow, I just punned out the first sentence of what is a mostly serious review – worst part? It was totally unintentional. I had typed it before my brain could catch up and slap myself). Ahem, as I was saying, sometimes the true test of something is to look into the heart of it. After stripping away the bells and whistles, removing the glitter and glisten, and tearing down all the things that dress it up, at the very core what you're left with is about as intimate as one can get. The Heart from Jimmy Gnecco is a working example of such an action. A majority of his new album is simply the singer and his guitar - no frills, no distortion (save for the album's closer), and no layers of orchestration to hide behind. With this album, the songwriter offers his abilities for all to examine and judge with pure candidness (which best describes the metaphoric cover, featuring nothing more than a bare Gnecco).
For fans of Gnecco's previous releases, under the moniker Ours, you can stop reading this review and get the album. There's nothing, stylistically speaking, that should throw anyone off guard. Each song on here could've easily made a home on an Ours release (some almost did at various points), but they were all put to the side to be planted, raised, and grown by the songwriter himself with no outside contributions. The results of this homogeneous writing process are haunting, soulful, and insightful. It's funny how I've never personally heard a strong similarity between Jimmy and the much heralded Jeff Buckley before, a comparison he's carried all along, but it's with this album's coarse bite that it actually registers. It's not to say that this album is a step backward for the musician in defining his own sound, but a step forward in producing works that induce biting chills without the need to violently scream them into existence.
While this album is a stripped version of his typical fair, that's not to say it's completely without instrumentation or the occasional uptempo number. The disc's title track is actually the most active offering, with a gypsy guitar line, driving hand claps over tribal drumming, and the only song to really feature the singer's guttural, trademark bellow. There's also the lead single, “Bring You Home,” while being topically heavy, is an incredibly catchy number that adds beauty to longing. Probably the most upbeat number available would be the long floating “Gravity.” It and the slower paced “Mystery” possess a quality that could be likened to The Beatles.
The parts that really make this gem shine, however, are the slower, more solemn pieces. Songs like “Rest Your Soul”, “Take a Chance”, and “Light on the Grave” all induce an unearthly cadence with ease. “Darling” and “Patiently Waiting” are two personal favorites, the former being one of the most captivating vocal performances this go round, and the latter having a ground stomping beat that invigorates each word with added potency. Each song could be identified and tagged into their respective “sounds like” bin, but the important thing to note is that the album is pointed enough to convey a particular atmosphere, while being varied enough to keep things interesting. From the opening “ooh”s to the closing sound drifts of the closing track, “Talk to Me,” Gnecco deftly addresses love, loss, longing, and the eventual moving on without making any real missteps.
--Jeremy Deal
Comments
Sunshine Coast, Australia
all I get out of this review is this fella wants to be dallas green. Maybe I should listen to the music, good review mate... nothing wrong with a good pun.
"If you want something done right, get a fucking Australian band to do it" - Chris Cheney
Actually Sandy, I wish I had thought of Dallas Green when I did the RIYL... they don't really SOUND a thing a like (both in actual tonal sound or in style), but I think if you really appreciate one there's a good chance you'd appreciate the other. Appreciate it man.
"These are our lives, but did they ever even matter - are we worth remembering?"
- "Tip The Scales"
Rise Against
Spokane, Washington
the jeff buckley comparison is spot on. i always thought that theysounded very similar when gnecco was with ours, but this is the confirmation. good album!
current listenings:
Of Virtue - "Heartsounds"
Capsule - "No Ghost"
Century - "Red Giant"
James Vincent McMorrow - "Early In The Morning"
Blind Pilot - "We Are The Tide"
Sunshine Coast, Australia
thats why we're here eh Jeremy, gotta appreciate it.
"If you want something done right, get a fucking Australian band to do it" - Chris Cheney
East Greenwich, RI
Great album, although to my ears Jimmy sounds more like the singer of Travis than anyone else.
haha - well my fiance is about as big of a fan of Fran Healy as one can get, so I can hear a blaring difference, though - to your credit - now that I think about it, when we first started listening to The Heart, she did say there was something about the way he sang on this one did remind her of him at parts, so you just may be onto something after all!
"These are our lives, but did they ever even matter - are we worth remembering?"
- "Tip The Scales"
Rise Against