Alejandro Escovedo - Real Animal

When I heard Alejandro's new album was going to be made up of songs inspired by his musical career and personal life I winced. "No, not Alejandro," I thought! usually reminiscing should be left to one's friends and families - or at least save it for the memoirs. When any rocker looks backwards it's usually like masturbation - fun for the doer only. Often these types of records feature lyrics stretched or squeezed to fit into awkward musical spaces and the music itself sounds soundtracky or contrived. "Real Animal" certainly falls into none of these traps. Each song is rich, melodic and the music stands alone - no back drops for lyrics or stories here. The lyrics, too, are not a bore. I think the reason is instead of just recounting his "crazy days" or regrets, or whatever, he ties his stories to bigger (or smaller) themes we can all relate to. A perfect example is the song "Chelsea Hotel '78"- I cringed when I saw this potentially pretentious title. But early in the song the lyric "..we came to live inside the myths of everything we heard" let's us know this isn't going to be an idealized 'gee, don't you wish you where there' hipster brag trip. The song goes on to name drop left and right, but it still works and connects to every situation we've all had in our lives where expectations fade and reality takes us in a different direction - and in the end it's just as it should have been. All the songs feature excellent story telling, but this album is all about the music - at once clean and deep and each songs builds in a specific, logical, but fresh direction. Very complex layers, but not showboaty or distracting. Great stuff.