| CD REVIEW Left Alone |
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Band: Left Alone The story of Wilmington based Left Alone is a strange one revolving around the main character, lead singer and guitarist Elvis Cortez! He used to own a record store near Long Beach (CA) while also running the PCH Club. Jimmy James (now organist for Left Alone) was playing guitar in his former band Against Your Will when he and Elvis met, and the quickly became close friends, both coming from broken homes. Elvis signed AYW to Smellvis Records, and also produced their debut album…but then he got the travelling heebee jeebies, chucked it all, and picking up a bag full of CDs, hopped onboard the Warped Tour as a roadie. AYW at that time having a slow time, James followed Elvis, joining up as guitar tech and merch guy for the 2005 Warped Tour! The two had already started composing and promoting their own songs on route, and eventually caught the attention of Hellcat, who swiftly singed the band. Followed LA’s debut album Lonely Starts And Broken Hearts, plenty of touring, and the sophomore album Dead American Radio (review by former collegue Trik posted 17/12/2006), followed by more touring…establishing the band as a 3-chord-Ska-flavoured-Punk-act-with-a-face-of-its-own! Returning home (which had now become Wilmington, Cortez’ birth place) from another run of live shows in January 2007, the band started out to compose another set of songs for their third album…and then decided to take a lengthy break! A stranger to such quiet periods, Cortez jumped to the occasion to join Unseen on several tours as their temporary bassist. When eventually coming home again, he looked at the material the band had composed woith a fresh mind, and felt the need for change. On their first albums, the band had offered songs with a large variety in styles, and now Elvis wanted to mesh everything up in a more cohesive album, “…into a more polished and progressive sound, with personal lyrics and a commitment to give the fans something to salivate over, and silence the critics they care so little about…” (from the band’s biography). I suppose the old LA gang wasn’t into that idea, because suddenly we find Elvis recruiting bassist/ backing singer Nick Danger (originally from Honolulu, Hawaii, he joined LA on the first day he came to Wilmington for a try-out and immediately relocated – his strong vegan ethos and animal rights belief certainly helped him getting along with Elvis and landing the job) and drummer Cobra Kiel (a North California native who’s toured around the US extensively during the last 8 years, and somewhere along there Elvis had not only seen him play and been impressed, but also offered him a slot with the band, without ever having played together). Fans of the band’s former Ska leanings need not worry, there’s still a fair amount of songs (“Sad Story”, dealing with true-live events in the gang-infested confines of Wilmington, and in a lesser degree the poltically charged “Bombs Away” and instrumental organ diddy “Intermission”, “Low Fidelity”, and eventually the ballad “Something For Nothing”) containing Ska elements to a varying extend. In all, the album (which is also available on limited colour vinyl for all of us anti-digital fans out there) contains 15 new songs…good for an enjoyable 35 ½ minutes listening session each time you push that “play” button (or start the record player, in case you get yourself the vinyl, eh?). Check things out at myspace.com/leftalonepunx, where you can currently listen to “Sad Story” (admittingly the móst Ska-laden track on the album) and “3 Bottles Of Wine”, which is more typical for the (non Ska-influenced and often rather Pop geared, even if the keyboards are occasionally very “dominant”) rest of the album. A nice album to listen to a couple of times, but you would have to be a fan of the genre to put this self-titled album in your year-lists! 80/100 Tony. |