| Issue
#89
Sept.
‘06
A current TV commercial by a popular sports
drink shows a ball
(basketball, football, baseball, volleyball, soccer ball…)
on the playing field, it
begins to rain, the ball begins to stretch, grow, strain, and
eventually rips open as a
well tuned, finely chiseled athlete of that particular sport bursts
forth/breaks out.
Frank
Critelli’s last CD was
2002’s Both/And, a
beautiful, stirring
self-examination of life, life’s lessons, the applications of
such and their effects
on not only one persons future, but the lives of those touched by them
as well. In 2005
Frank teamed up with Mike Franzman and Tom Harrington to create Brutally Frank and released the 5 song
EP, You can’t handle the truth,
which broke the
singer/songwriter mode and placed Frank’s folk style poetry
in a more wide open band
content.
Now, picture the same commercial with an
acoustic guitar alone on a stage, next to it
is a copy of Both/And. It begins to rain, raining Brutally Frank CDs,
the guitar begins to
stretch and grow, strain and eventually rips open as a well tuned,
finely chiseled Frank Critelli
bursts forth/breaks out. Before You Break,
Frank Critelli’s new CD
gives us just that.
Symbolically the Album opens with what seems
to be a demo version of Brutally
Frank’s Downhill From Here. Bare, solo, acoustic guitar
leading a somber, muted-tone
band, Frank’s vocals relate a tale of accepting the second
half of life. With the
title trimmed to Downhill
– It’s as if Frank is
saying; everything that’s got me this far is wonderful, but
from here on out I’m
gonna enjoy the ride, and you should too…
And away we go. The next 3 songs prove how
serious Frank is about cutting lose not only
musically, but lyrically as well. Horndog, gives us a garage
anthem to getting
laid - complete with The McCoys “Hang On Sloopy”
fuzz guitar chords (Rick
Derringer would be proud). Then, It’s The
Way does a complete 180 as we find Frank
back behind the acoustic guitar
moving us instrumentally and delivering a heart-felt requiem of a man
in love, yet
questioning the foundation of that love “But
the stars have changed / and I am lost in someone else’s sky.”
Next, toss in
a wonderful circus funeral march of Ahead or
Behind, and wow, what a trifecta! With
the incomparable Ed Leonard on Congas,
Jef Wilson (who also did a beautiful job recording this album) on
Melodica, and
Frank’s vocals sounding as if squeezed through a low volume
megaphone and backed by
Frank’s own double tracked harmonic vocals, all lending an
eerie, yet appropriate
accompaniment to this tragic tale of lost souls.
While Frank reveals his mastery of Rubber
Soul/Revolver era Beatles studiomanship
throughout, with a sprinkling of Brian Wilson here and there, it is the
two epics, Strange
Opera
and The
Moment of Creation, which nicely proclaim that Frank Critelli has indeed burst forth and
broken
out.
Strange
Opera delivers a great story about friends sitting
around the kitchen table
getting high while listening to the upstairs neighbor perform her
Strange Opera (sex).
“My heart is pounding / as I look
around / to
see the faces of my friends / astounded by the music / of the girl
upstairs / whose song
invades the room / yeah.” Set to a thumping Five
Man Electrical Band sound (a la`
Signs) it soars perfectly in the mood and vein of its intent.
The
Moment of Creation, in an artistic twist, closes
this album with a crescendo of
sound building subtlety around the acoustic guitar and congas as Franks
vocals loop back
on themselves in rounds. Into the rounds we hear, slightly buried, the
lyrics from
Downhill once again making an appearance. Growing with the
song’s instrumentation,
the combined vocals of each song represent the circle/cycle that Frank
has gone through
musically and in life, and the growth that has allowed him the comfort
and ability to
burst forth, to break out, to go where he is going and enjoy the ride,
because it is all
downhill from here.
Before You Break by
Frank Critelli
is available now for: $9.98 + s/h*
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Handling charges:
USA - $3.00
for the first 2 CDs
ordered,
Add $1.50 per each CD after.
Canada - $5.00 for the
first
CD ordered,
Add $2.00 per each CD after.
Everywhere else -$7.00
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first CD ordered,
Add $3.00 per each CD after.
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