It's just about too late for any high late new entries in my own personal countowns for 2021. The votes, (well my votes, the only ones that count here), are all in and counted, and the final rundown is decided as we make our way down through the thirties to Christmas Day. But had this come to my attention You Got Me!earlier in the year, it might have been a contender.
It's You Got Me! the latest album by Western Massachusetts Gabriel Bernini, who's been around for a while. It dropped last month. His fourth in all, fifth if you include a live record. This one sounds a bit like a live album too. Certainly as if it was recorded mostly live in the studio. It sounds like it's made by a group of musicians and very good friends who know and like each other very much.
It's all very tasteful and instant reminders are evoked of some of the most tasteful artists in Rock and Roll. The title and opening track immediately foregrounded the warm swirly organ sound of The Band. Then I heard Dylan's lazy late Sixties drawl, early Van Morrison, Wilco, J.J.Cale. Second track sounds like a rurally raised Sweet Jane.
So none of this is exactly new, but that's not always necessary. Bernini knows what he's doing and does it very well. This is lovely, much welcome stuff. Highly recommended. The songs chug like a somewhat elderly train, taking you home,. It's all as familiar and lovely as the sepia tinted photograph, I assume of Bernini on its cover. Perhaps the album never quite kicks into the top gear that you might have hoped for but it's all as warm as an open fire.
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