Aimless, shameless, churchless, stageless
Michael Nolan | Atlanta, Georgia | 10/13/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"It's no secret that I'm a fan of independent ("Indie") music and musicians. That said, I'm no pushover. It takes pure talent and effort to catch my attention and a healthy dose of WOW! to push me over the precipice toward buying a CD these days. Enter Jeffrey Altergott.
I'm a multitasker. Normally I'll listen to the first 30 seconds of a song to see if it interests me (and I'm always doing something else simultaneously. More often than not I've skipped a track before the 1 minute mark or just turned the volume down. In the case of "Icarus Grounded", I stopped what I was doing entirely and sat mesmerized from start to phenomenal finish.
" When the earth calls you back down, sometimes you feel ashamed of what you found"
The title track was my initial favorite. It's catchy in a sing-song-ish way and the lyrics make you want to hit the replay button at least a time or two. That's actually what I did for the first listen, I got stuck on track one for an hour. It wasn't until the next day that I made it through to track four, my pick for the masterpiece of this album.
" I pick up a shard of glass,
It glitters in the light and slip it under your tongue
To remind you that if you don't speak very carefully,
You might hurt someone"
I couldn't tell you if it is the introspective nature of the lyric, the deliberately ethereal vocalizations and harmonies or the haunting, near spine-tingling music, but "Broken Bottle" has a message that just about anyone will understand on some level.
Later in the album when he sings about being buried in the day-to-day, and...trying to break away, you can't help but feel comforted in the knowledge that you're not the only one who feels that way from time-to-time.
If you are a fan of music that is lyric-driven, guitar-based and devoid of over-produced bubble gum, you owe it to yourself to add this CD to your collection."
Track Listings (10) - Disc #1