Call Upon The Author

Hairy American AM brings us ‘Future Sons & Daughters’, a fuschia pink CD encased in a sleeve covered in foliage, him strutting about in a suit, and Banana Splits style writing. Hello, you might think – we’ve got a live one here! And a live one is exactly what you have got, because this album is bloomin great.
This is the complete package – great voice, smart lyrics, and excellent music bundled together to produce something really really enjoyable to listen to. Genre wise, it’s not easy to pin down – it swings between classic pop, to psychedelia, with a little bit of Samba and blues chucked in for good measure. For some artists, this could be a bit disjointed or messy – not for this one. It’s seamlessly, joyously whole and it never loses coherence.
First track A Complete Unknown combines surf guitar, bongos and vocal echoes to en effect evocative of seventies summers.The following track The Other Side is pure Americana of the loveliest and best kind, incorporating some gorgeous ukelele and AM’s clear and effortless vocals – absolutley wicked. It’s Been So Long is pure sixties soul, with it’s stoccato guitar, breathtaking harmonising and general greatness. Getting the idea yet? Honest, it is this good.
Darker Days steers us into more melancholic waters; and, guess what? He does moody brilliantly too. Throw in a little bit of pining in the vocals and a bit of whine in the guitar, and you’ve got yerself a winner. Soft, soulful and verrrry pretty. Self Preservation is the first single from this cracker of an album, and it’s a pretty decent showcase of what AM is capable of – lyrically astute, and hard to pigeonhole into one type of music, it’s a well worked quirky pop piece with an edge and it works well. Leavenworth gives us the soft, sad and acoustic side, and it’s pulled off with aplomb. AM has a strong voice, used here with some clever restraint over the gentle thump and pluck of the backing track. Lovely. Grand Opinion is directly beamed from the charts in 1963, and Fortunate Family Tree makes me think of Cowboy films (possibly appropriate, as our man here is from Oklahoma…), with it’s fiddly rythmns and almost hidden harmonica.
To round off, When The Dust Settles brings us more clever percussion, and gives that voice a chance to stretch it’s legs a little with some seriously gorgeous plinky plonking backing track action. Oooh, love this one. Jorge Ben is a cheeky little instrumental, in the vein of Green Onions; whirly organ, a little bit of brass, and a funky funky groove. And to play us out, Endings Are Beginnings - a sensitively sung farewell, with perfectly placed piano that softly swells and dampens the eyes.
So, in case it wasn’t obvious, this album is genuinely fantastic. Loved it from start to finish – even the slightly weaker songs are still loads better than a lot of the tat I’ve heard recently. If you like a little bit of workmanship in your music, and a bit of a change from the norm, check out AM.