CHUCK RAGAN – LOVE AND LORE

Most know him as one of the two frontmen for Hot Water Music but not many may not be familiar with Chuck Ragan’s prolific range released on his own solo recordings. Depending on who you ask, Love And Lore (Rise Records) is his fifth solo full-length, and is fresh off the heels of HWM’s brilliant and recently released Vows, which dropped back in May.  If it sounds like I’m low-key praising How Water Music, yeah, I am. But I digress.

Ragan takes a different approach with his own music as he normally strips things down and we don’t hear a whole lot of balls-to-the-walls guitar antics. With Love And Lore, we hear Ragan’s familiar vocal intonations & cadence but the album is varied, filled with acoustic instrumentation as well as hitting those guitars on overdrive. One thing we won’t get is hearing the same song more than once as he’s able to pull from his deep-ranging palette offering a cornucopia of change throughout. I keep moving back towards “Wild In Our Ways,” with its catchy guitar riffs, Ragan’s gruff vocal delivery, and an infectious melody that’s never exhausting. The backing vocal harmonies is a factor as well, accentuating the track. And now if I continue moving in reverse, the opening “All In” begins innocently enough with a strummed acoustic guitar rhythm before spaghetti-western guitar notes are embraced within the fold before Ragan chimes in, “I am edging away from apathy, I am drifting away from the dark.” We get the sense there’s a negative tendency he’s steering clear of and when he puts it to song, it’s released! There’s no hesitation, just a do-or-die attitude.

Now the Americana-infused “Winter” is a bit haunting musically and it is captivating. There’s something about that you can’t let go of. Is it Ragan’s painful delivery? Does the music’s melancholic feel pull you in? It’s probably both but when Ragan sings “Free your shadow,” it’s a moment to ponder, which could be interpreted in several ways. There’s just so much to take in throughout the album but it’s “Waiting Out The Storm,” flowing with country-like drama as Ragan takes accountability for his own actions when he sings. “Oh, this time that I have darkened up your door/oh these crazy days of burning love and lore, I’ve been the hurricane we’re in/waiting out the storm.” It’s what we all need more of. He says the things most men won’t. While the balladesque  “Reel My Heart” may find Ragan attempting to find a balance between music & family, he’s not averse to looking to the heavens for help from a higher power either. There’s just so much realism within the music, that just might be the appeal.

Some artists create albums that are entrancing, not just through musical backdrops but also in the way they weave words together. Through Love And Lore, Ragan has cemented himself as one such artist.

BUÑUEL – MANSUETUDE

Where one point ends, another inadvertently – or purposely – surfaces. In the end, there are unanswered questions that we’ll simply leave in a dark back alley because in all honesty, have nothing to do with us all. With that said, Eugene Robinson, unceremoniously left the group Oxbow, the band he fronted since 1988 after what many considered the band’s most realized work in Love’s Holiday. Robinson seems to have quickly convened with a group of Italian musicians for BUÑUEL. With guitarist Xabier Iriondo (Afterhours, A Short Apnea), bassist Andrea Lombardini (The Framers), and drummer Franz Valente (Il Teatro Degli Orrori), it doesn’t seem as if anything is amiss.

The group has just released its debut full-length offering in Mansuetude (SKiN GRAFT Records), which hits with a visceral attack like no other. From the start, appearances may have one thinking this is just an experimental noise affair with sound, but it goes deeper than that. The brief sludgy instrumentation around “Who Missed Me” morphs into a dark metallic grind as Robinson exclaims “Nobody misses me!” It then changes direction with a different melody altogether before reverting back to scratch the underbelly of the beast that lies below before shifting again. It’s as if there’s almost no rhyme or reason to the varied changes but it doesn’t matter because it’s a heavy hitter that knows no bounds. This while “Class” offers something different as guitars move with and without percussion surrounding it. But when everything comes together within its thunderous melody, move bitch, get out the way! Robinson growls, howls, as his voice reverberates throughout the song. While you feel the band’s presence, Robinson’s voice is unmistakably in control. The group’s rhythmic capabilities cannot be denied here. If there’s any track that moves under the radar here it’s “Movement No. 201,” wallowing in darkness, which could possibly be translated for the stage. I imagine a desolate era piece directed by a Lin-Manuel Miranda-type, high on crack & meth, directing characters into their respective oblivious demise. Instruments sometimes crash and are silent as Robinson delivers his prose, wrapped in discontent.

There’s an obscene amount of innovation flowing throughout here, it never just encompasses one track. With “Leather Bar” I have to double down on my previous comment because the band’s delivery here is dramatic, with Valente offering the right amount of percussion. The members are deathly animated here drawing instruments around Robinson’s words & delivery. But it’s the unexpected strings (Andrea Beninati) midway through that evoke a melancholy around the sparse clatter of guitars. BUÑUEL never changes its identity but we come back to realize it hasn’t forsaken its punk roots on “High.Speed.Chase.” Yeah, the band gives us the direct rhythm and melody as Robinson tells moves into the high-speed chase antics of cops and punks. Who wins? We do. The band is relentless and barely stops to catch its breath. The group circles around with “American Steel,” which should be an American classic joint at some point, featuring Jesus Lizard’s Duane Denison on guitar. The band breaks down barriers with this one as the rhythm section holds things down and guitars create a distinctive wall of sound with its melody. Yes, this is one for the ages.

If there was any hesitancy about BUÑUEL, there shouldn’t have been. Eugene Robinson never plays it safe except when knowing who to work with, finding like-minded individuals who believe in a singular vision. But we can’t ignore “Fixer,” which features Couch Slut’s Megan Osztrosits. Both vocalists understand the mission to blend voices that become one. This is a hell yes. So yeah, Mansuetude is the way to go. Join the band on its journey and I promise, it won’t disappoint you in the slightest.