ARTiST: Steve Caraway
ALBUM: Hurricane Season
BiTRATE: 196kbps avg
QUALiTY: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.97 Final / -V2 --vbr-new / 44.100Khz
LABEL: Indienink
GENRE: Rock
SiZE: 79.17 megs
PLAYTiME: 0h 53min 20sec total
RiP DATE: 2008-09-19
STORE DATE: 2008-07-15
Track List:
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01. Before You Run Away 4:29
02. When I Change My Mind 2:47
03. Hurricane Season 4:22
04. Something New 4:11
05. Rabbit 4:16
06. Evangeline 4:00
07. No Looking Back 4:32
08. Push 4:14
09. Gone, Gone, Gone 4:08
10. Sausage Factory 3:48
11. Keeping Secrets 3:58
12. Scented Letter 3:20
13. The Very End 5:15
Release Notes:
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Caraway has chosen a great title for this album as he manages to unleash a force
force gale of tuneful powerpop on this release. ItÆs a good thing, too, as power
pop seems to be the bastard stepchild of the music world and anyone releasing a
power pop album seemingly has to have an album of quality head and shoulders
above anyone else in order to get noticed. You can thank The Beatles for that.
As much as musicians (and music fans in general) adore those delightful
mop-topped lads, they set the bar so exceedingly high it has been hard for
artists and bands who consider themselves like-minded musically to make much of
an impact. Bands like Badfinger, The Raspberries, and Big Star (just to name
three) were all stellar acts who received comparatively little to no love thanks
to their devotion to short songs will brilliantly melodic verses and extremely
catchy choruses. Those pesky Beatles had done it already, so there! Not too
mention making it look so easy, any really catchy song is dismissed as bubblegum
and may be heralded for awhile (öMy Sharonaö or, more recently, ôStacyÆs Momö)
but then regarded as a mere novelty and only remembered jokingly.
Thankfully for those who love their rock and roll with a little bit of energy
and melodic bite, Caraway does as good as anyone IÆve heard at overcoming these
inherent shortcomings within the genre, though, hell, why donÆt we just call it
ômusicö and do away with all of the stigma, shall we? With a sharp set of songs
and some brilliant vocalising (and a very good set of backing musicians) Caraway
acquits himself very well on this album, his first. It is as a songwriter that
CarawayÆs talent shines brightest, however. With pithy, terse statements and a
writerÆs gift for minute detail Caraway manages to be insightful yet also breezy
and fun. Musically, the album straddles the line between rock and lite pop,
somewhere between John Mayer with less guitar and more keyboard and the band
Maroon 5 with less studio sheen and more rock and roll spirit.
I like this album and look forward to hearing from work from Caraway. Great
songwriters are hard to find. Caraway sounds like heÆs got the stuff and, after
a few more albums, should be making some incendiary music if he keeps it up.
LetÆs hope he does. To make sure he stays with it, itÆs up to us: buy this
album!