MR AVERELL REVIEW

In the world of music there are some bands that like to go for the weird instead of the normal when playing music. When listening to Mr. Averell's new album "Gridlock" I was astounded by what I was hearing. The music being played is so random and unoridnary that it surprised me. If I where to play the association game with these songs each song brought up different images of things like a puppet, a horror movie, and even Dracula. This music is odd and weird where on the first listening I was more stunned by what I was hearing but with each time I heard the songs I grew to like them more and more. And not it's not because they kept playing that made me like them, it's because I would hear something different each time that built the songs as well as the songs just being well played, that made me like them.

The one song that I didn't like and didn't feel in place with the other 11 songs, is the opening song "Lock". When it first played I didn't even know it was playing. After about 30 seconds I checked to see if I had hit play. That's when I saw that it was playing and only had a few more seconds left to play. When it ended I played it again, turned up the volume, and was able to hear the song play. This first song is very low and quiet compared to the other songs so I just skipped it when I was playing the album over again. However, the rest of the songs are very well played that are so much fun to listen to. There's all sorts of sounds being created in the songs by using organs, horns, guitar, violin, , and even the vocals themselves are used to build a very odd but good set of songs.

I'm not sure what kind of meaning the songs would have, well some seem to be pretty straight to the point like with "Kiss the Girl!" but then there is the song "Boxes" and "Babel", which by the way I enjoyed "Babel" the most, that the lyrics just don't make any sense. This is an album that's weird, that's the best way I can come up with to describe the feelings the songs emit, weird. They're fun, lots of fun in fact, but the odd way that vocals are being sung in, the eclectic sounds, and the ominous beats being put out in the songs make this album stand out over a lot of the untypical groups. Which because of this oddity these songs have, the well orchestrated beats, and vocals that make you notice them, that I liked this album as much as I did.

http://shakefire.com/review/mr-averell-gridlock

CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM GONZO

Gridlock CD - £9.99