Monday, June 17, 2013

CD REVIEW: Gospel Gossip s/t (Old Blackberry Way)

Gospel Gossip s/t (Old Blackberry Way)
                ZzAsd ß Quentin typed that.  Not sure what it means.
                Gospel Gossip is a self-titled CD by a band that I feel like I have had forever (Well, it has been some odd months) and yet haven’t gotten around to writing about despite my listening to it because, well, by now, I thought that things would be different, I really did. 
                If you’ve ever read more than let’s say five of my good reviews (Not that one line crap), you’ll know that I know a lot about music mainly from listening to a lot of music, but one of my biggest faults right now (Aside from not learning more about bands that sound like Buddy Holly from his time) is that I grew up without a lot of positive female role models in the music industry.   Before Kurt Cobain ate lead, there wasn’t even really as much attention as there is now to Courtney Love.   Most of (if not all) the other bands and singers from my teenage years have been limited in the number of radio songs and thus I never really paid that much attention to them on the whole.   This whole theory of course has the one exception of Alanis Morissette, who I actually only really started getting into maybe five years ago.   But when you look over the list of full length albums that I had growing up and the ones that have stuck with me throughout the years, you know how many you’ll find with female vocals?   Yes, sadly, none.
                I really want that to change and I really do believe that in ten years time it will change for more people than just me.  As I pointed out in the beginning that Quentin, my almost year and a half old son, typed the string of letters up there, I really do want him to grow up in a time where he can have just as many female based bands to listen to in his collection as those of their male counterparts (And the in between bands that have both vocals or no vocals) 
                All that aside, please enjoy my review of this even though some of my comparisons have been used before due to a lack of better options being available.
                The first thing you should notice about the band Gospel Gossip is the dreamy female vocals.   They remind me at times of a mellower version of Cyndi Lauper, a better version of Courtney Love or someone from the 1980’s/1990’s that didn’t even sing in a rock band ala Tiffany. 
                These vocals are pieced together with some of the warmest ambient music you have ever heard.   It recalls such easy comparisons to make as Blondie to more modern comparisons the likes of As Tall As Lions.   Out of nowhere, the fourth track (“Except You”) gets this almost country twang to it, but it’s working for them.   As far in as the seventh song (“Snow Came”) you can begin to hear hints of Sheryl Crow and that’s not at all a diss because I don’t like Sheryl Crow as a musician myself, but this somehow makes the sound of her tolerable. 
                These beautifully crafted songs could be easily passed off into the shoegaze category, but there are still so much more to them.    And now at least I have a new focal point to send a lot of future reviews to, in terms of female vocal comparisons.  

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