Rating 5/5
Review:
Brilliant
Sometimes – rarely – I stumble across an album or artist which makes me wonder why on earth I hadn't heard of them before. This is one such album from 2002 – a completely random recent find for me, and it turns out to be quite brilliant.
Kelly Pardekooper, as well as from possessing an absolutely outstanding name, is a terrific singer and songwriter. It's sort of blues/country Americana, but very varied. In various places I hear echoes of JJ Cale, Tony Joe White, Tom Petty, Jason Isbell…even people like The Beatles and Lou Reed seem to lurk faintly in some places. Pardekooper is his own man, though, and this is an album of individual class. He writes songs on familiar themes of lust, love, home, the country working life: it's not groundbreaking stuff, but it's really, really good.
The songs vary in atmosphere from the magnificently restrained, atmospheric Can't Go There, through the haunting, singable Drown In Alcohol to the more rocky, incredibly infectious Hayseed Girl (which gets me moving every single time). From just Pardekooper and his guitar to full band, everything here is just a bit of class, I think. It's hard to put my finger on exactly why because nothing is fantastically original, but a little like JJ Cale, they are unfussy, well crafted songs which carry real sincerity and are played and sung with a straightforward directness which is based in really good but unflashy musicianship. Pardekooper's singing is just great, with a slightly husky creaky voice that he varies in tone so that it always expresses his mood and meaning beautifully, and the arrangements and production are pitch-perfect, I think.
If, like me, this is the first you've heard of Kelly Pardekooper my advice is to listen to a few samples or find a few songs on YouTube and then snap this up. It's a terrific album and I'm really looking forward to hearing more of his work.
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