Friday, February 16, 2018

Sule - Love Me



Sule - Love Me 


You don’t hear songs like “Love Me” much anymore. There’s no unnecessary bells and whistles with this tune masquerading its lack of melody or merit, no hip language designed to capitalize on the zeitgeist of the moment. Instead, Sule’s “Love Me” gets over with its intended audience for all the classic reasons – there’s immense attention paid to melody, accessible yet well worded lyrics, vocal excellence, and superb production virtues defining the song, but the heart of it all is driven by a sincere and deeply felt performance from Sule. To put it bluntly, he means every word. It comes across without any pretense or apparent strain and further benefits from being cut to an ideal length. “Love Me” is this Canadian performer’s finest performance to date and poises him for a brighter future than ever before.  
 
The swing aspect of the songwriting definitely sets the performance apart from typical fare in this mold. Sule and his supporting musicians never over-emphasize this element to the exclusion of others and there’s an overall coherence to the piece that brings all of those components together in a highly complementary manner. If Sule or the musicians have any self-consciousness about pursuing a long-forgotten style for popular music, it never shows. Instead, there’s an easy going nature surrounding this tune that comes across from the first and never feels forced. Moreover, the recording has a level of intimacy that sounds like the tune is specifically recorded for you alone and Sule’s cool, finessed yet emotive vocal underscores that closeness even more. This song is an ideal example of the possible results when musical artists work closely together to produce an unified work of art and it will likely win you over from the first hearing as it did me. 
 
Make no mistake, however, that Sule’s singing is the showcase moment of this performance. His voice has a wideness and vividness thanks to his talent for incorporating a number of moods into its sound. It’s satisfying on every level. There’s real sweetness, a little melancholy, and even some soft pedaled sensuality that comes through in his performance and it all springs from a blues/jazz foundation that’s a perfect fit for the Americana tendencies of the songwriting. His upbringing in a very different nation doesn’t have any detrimental effect on the piece – if anything, this outsider point of view brings a fresh interpretation to this style that few of his contemporaries can readily match. It’s obviously one of the more inviting and personable singles to come down the pike in recent history and has a strong performance at its center that promises to open a new chapter for Sule’s career and life. “Love Me” will satisfy both longtime music fans, those who already admire Sule’s considerable talents, and any newcomers willing to take a chance on this fantastic track.  


Laura Dodero

Monday, February 5, 2018

Universal Dice - birth, love, hate, death


Universal Dice - birth, love, hate, death

Written and produced by Gerry Dantone, Universal Dice is an ambitious rock project and their latest release birth, love, hate, death is being billed as a flat out rock opera that throws back to the great work of everyone from Queen to The Who.  With 16 songs and none of them sounding very much alike, even though certain muscular musical ideas and serious lyrical themes that tackle life, death, love, loss, triumph and failure tie the entirety of this record into a cohesive whole.  Simply put, these songs belong with one another and anybody that’s got a hankering for some forward thinking yet oddly classic, blues-nuanced rock n’ roll is going to go buck wild for this release.   
Songwriter/singer/bandleader Dantone is joined by a host of rock-solid musicians including lead guitarist Bob Barcus, bassist Eddie Canova and keyboardists Walt Sargent and Vincent Crici that make for a very full, very powerful sound with a big, bold backbone that hits hard more than it goes for the soft stuff (although the band is adept at ANY mood).  The album wanders between full on rock n’ roll bangers to slithering blues guitar deviations to poppy-inflected numbers that even bring home a few honest to goodness ballads along the way.  

The album starts off with pure abandon as the full-on rocker, “Welcome to the World’s” road ready, hard rock riffs go for broke only to simmer down to a slow boil for “I Wish I Could Tell You This” late 70s, knife-edge power blues complete with wah-soaked guitar licks and baroque organ playing.  It’s a sonic one-two, opening punch that kicks and sticks to the memory and practically cements the record as an instant classic.  Of course they still need to maintain momentum beyond the intro couplet but these guys know their stuff and maintain momentum they do.  There are some hints of Seger and other crunchy singer/songwriter legends on the crawly “Your Son” which furthers those big, brutish blues-inflections, the overcast lifting once again to provide some no-frills, riff-ready hard yet pop-leaned rock on “The Prophet’s” mix of KISS and The Who.  “My Hands Are Tied” follows a similar strutting attack pattern but goes for broke on the chorus harmony vocals, where a cosmic melody really twists the tune into a slick sing-a-long number.  I think Dantone himself does all of the percussion programming for his group, but only if you listen on close can you tell that the drumming is electronic and not manually performed and it too enhances the record in this quirky, cool way that perfectly works for the album’s epic intentions.  
“Take Me Home” is a real crunchy, crisp-riffed composition with some of the guitar-fury and rhythmic heft lifting on the heavily piano enhanced, positively gorgeous vocal musing and melodies of “Danielle.”  Again, these cats have far more sides and moods than the duo of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde…  It seems that the record never loses its peak moments and continually keeps cresting as it goes from strength to strength.  Whether pulling off some keyboard/vocal tenderness with “Honestly” and soulful closer “Forever,” or coming straight from the rock n’ roll gut on “I Love It When They Hate It” and “Better Man,” Universal Dice can do absolutely nothing wrong on this record.  If you long for the days when musical giants walked and ruled the Earth, then birth, love, death, hate will be exactly the kind of sonic reminder you’ve been hoping to hear for ages.  What an album, what a band; highly recommended!    
David Shouse