On “Energy” Big Apple Blues narrates a day in the life of an average New York. Full of kinetic energy the songs refuse to slow down. Rather they move at full speed for there is no slowing down. The band clearly listens and works off each other creating a well-oil machine that effortlessly creates fully formed grooves. Every instrument is perfect in pitch tone and atmosphere. Big Apple Blues clearly enjoys exploring their many grooves finding interesting variations within the repetitions, always building them larger and larger like the many buildings of the Big Apple.
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“Wake Up And Do Something” opens the album up with simultaneous playfulness and dread. Playful because is the way Big Apple Blues best expresses themselves. Dread because of that danged alarm that begins the track. “I-278” is a slow burn of a song letting everything ooze out of it. One of the album’s highlights has to be the constant shifting contortions of “Morning Jive” whose guitar work is jaw-dropping in its exquisite beauty. From such great energy comes the slowdown of “Remembering ENI” which takes its sweet time in moving forward like an exhausted employee in the middle of their day. For the duo of “Lost In Thoughts” and “Daydreaming” Big Apple Blues reaches a perfect Zen of contemplation.
The final stretch of “Energy” lets things mellow out considerably. “Happy Hour” and “Unwind” show off their ability to let the songs sprawl. “Energy” ends things off on a high note with as much as they can possibly put into a single piece, with the action of the beginning returning. “Energy” is a much-needed album for the daily grind in an endless New York.
Posted by Beach Sloth
