Devils & Angels

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Mêlée

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I came to this album with no preconceived notions; my teenaged son is a big fan of their previous album and asked me to preorder this for him from their website. He has taste similar to my own, so when he suggested that I listen to it (with, in retrospect, a strange grin on his face) I was more than happy to comply.

I was totally unprepared for how impressed I would be. This album is absolutely tremendous. There are so many good things to say about the band as a whole and the album in particular that it's hard to know where to start. They're more than just good musicians - they're good musicians who've obviously worked hard at creating a unified sound. Rather than being a collection of soloists they truly play together. Lead guitarist Ricky Sans, for example, is clearly a talented player but he never beats you over the head with solos designed to highlight his skill. His work supports and adds highlights to well designed arrangements. Vocalist/pianist Chris Chron is a great singer, and his piano playing runs the gamut from elegant lead work to an energetic channeling of the late Nicky Hopkins.

None of that counts for much without good material. Well, they've got good material. In fact, they've got GREAT material. The temptation is to say that the songwriting is the star of the album, but that denigrates the musicianship. All of the original songs (cowritten by Chron and Sans and arranged by the whole band) have wonderful melodies that you'll be humming for days, and mature well thought out lyrics. For one example, the opening lines of "Drive Away" are "I bet you want to know who's coming/Coming to the party tonight/My friends are drinking satisfaction/I've been mixing tonic and spite."

I won't pretend that I can give you a list of the best songs on the album, since that list changes day by day. (There hasn't been a single day since the album came in the mail when I haven't heard at least a few of these songs.) The best I can do is this: my favorites today are "Built To Last," "For A Lifetime," "Drive Away" and "Stand Up." When it came time to chose the songs I'd add to my (moderately small) iPod, I chose every song on the CD, something I've never done before!

One word of caution: Warner Brothers Records has done a horrible job of promoting or even distributing this album. I check for it in stores all the time, and have yet to find it, including in stores that carry the band's first album from a much smaller label. Since I clearly hope that you'll buy this album, let me suggest that you order it right here, right now. This is a "Can't Lose" purchase.