Friday, February 10, 2017

LP Review: Self-Titled by Heath Green and the Makeshifters

Heath Green and the Makeshifters
In 2017 is the art of making an album dead?

Many times it appears to me that there are major artists that simply do not care about making an album.

James Leg sees his records as sides of albums...so he makes two mini albums each time I suppose.

Far more often than should be allowed, listening to forty five minutes of music by a single artist instead of being a seven course meal, ends up being a trip to the buffet at the casino.

Don't get me wrong, the casino buffet in my hometown here...you can get sashimi and steak and all you can eat at that. So, I'm a big fan of buffets, but there's a difference between eating a meal of wholly disconnected courses and having a proper meal.

Heath Green and the Makeshifters
There are two things that make an album pop instead of being a dreary, monotonous experience: Dynamics and Variety.

But Nik, you're thinking, didn't you just decry variety? No, I objected to abject variety.

What's hard to is to make a varied album that still feels like the songs are interconnected.

Even if that connection is simply feel and that's where Heath Green and the Makeshifters have really accomplished something.

This record features nearly every kind of blues you can name, save Delta Blues, and it even has smatterings of Arena Rock. So, in not so many words, this album is a Casino Buffet in terms of variety.

But it's a curated variety or these songs go together. The 12 bar blues functions like the appetizer. The boogie blues are the main course. Last but not least, that arena rock is the dessert.

It's not just that these fellows can play these styles, but they can write quality tunes in these styles. Their debut album is never over produced, never over played, and the speakers just overworked by just a hair, rendering that perfect sound.

Release: 3/3/17
Genre: Blues
Label: Alive-Natural Sound
Formats: LP/CD/Digital
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