Brent Cash - How Strange It Seems (2011)

Tracklist

01. I Wish I Were a Song
02. It's Easier Without Her
03. I Can't Love You Anymore Than I Do
04. Just Like Today
05. How Strange It Seems
06. Where Do All the Raindrops Go
07. The Heart Will Always Work Alone
08. I Must Tell You Now
09. Don't Turn Your Back on the Stars
10. I Just Can't Look Away
11. I Wish I Were a Song (Epilogue)
12. When It's Just You & Me (Bonus Track)

It's probably not a surprise that the swooping and slow orchestral arrangement that kicks off How Strange It Seems could be from some prime Jimmy Webb or Bacharach/David-written piece from the 1960s -- or that Brent Cash's title for that first piece is "I Wish I Were a Song," which he sweetly and gently sings. Like his debut solo effort, How Strange is definitely an indulgence in a kind of pop that doesn't exist anymore, not just from one specific era but blended together into its own metastyle that's unable to escape the past and intentionally not wanting to do. The huge statement-of-purpose splashiness of the first song (which is also reprised as the last) almost overwhelms everything else, making it "just" easygoing indie pop with an understandably elegant edge, but it still works nicely enough, from the harpsichord breaks and Phil Spector drum beats on "It's Easier Without Her" to the piano-led "Don't Turn Your Back on the Stars." Cash's voice doesn't quite soar as much as it does on the album's signature, favoring instead the kind of tender whisper that suggests something rather than driving it home, though the contrast between that and the massed male choral vocals toward the end of "I Just Can't Look Away" become a moment of remarkable melodrama. The slightly more "rock" songs (as such) like the title track use electric guitar only as shading or framing for the main melody and performance, to enjoyable effect. There's also something perfect about the song title "Where Do All the Raindrops Go," a sentiment that works a variety of ways. The short instrumental of lush ocean-liner-lounge funk of "I Can't Love You Anymore Than I Do" is another fun nugget - Chuck Mangione would appreciate both the trumpet and the wah-wah.

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