Album Review
***1/2 (3.5 Stars)
By Anthony Kuzminski
{Buy the album at this link}
I remember a friend giving me a copy of Michael McDermott’s Last Chance Lounge {link} and how engrossed I was by his surging voice. “Getting Off the Dime”, “Unemployed” and “Murder On Her Lips” were as soul-searching as music gets. Taking a page from the rock era’s great singer-songwriters, McDermott has a penchant for making you believe that he’s in the throes of war in each of his songs as he exerts himself to the point where your speakers will tower over from the avalanche of emotions. I re-discovered many of his earlier albums, including one with liner notes by Stephen King where he declared “Michael McDermott is a great artist”. However, something happened along the way…I lost sight of McDermott’s career path and trajectory, until now. His PR person, Matt Michaelis, reached out to me about my in-depth album review of Bon Jovi’s These Days record from a few months back which appeared on antiMusic. He asked if I was interested in possibly reviewing the record. I could make no promises, but he persisted and sent me a review copy a few days later. As I sat and listened to Hey La Hey on my ear phones a few days later, I felt a tidal wave of sensations overcome me. That same voice that absorbed me with a series of songs almost a decade back was reintroducing himself to me. Amidst spare yet inviting arrangements, I felt myself in these songs, I saw people I knew and like all great music, it unearthed emotions you sometimes forget you have. McDermott has made a career of writing about bewildered souls besieged by the complexities of life. Hey La Hey features characters full of fury, but for the first time in his life, an overwhelming sense of tenacity infects the entire album. His previous records featured rich, thick and layered textures providing some of his songs in a dazzling larger than life presentation. On Hey La Hey all the cosmetic embellishments are removed and what we’re left with are ten brutally truthful, poetic and solemn songs where the lyrics fly in your face like a irrefutable life force forcing reflection.
Youthful innocence fades to black and is replaced with the truth on the opener, “So Am I”. The dual tracked vocal adds to the warmth of the hymn-like confessional, evoking Lennon/McCartney in a “Two of Us” style. Two lovers here serenade one another with confessions most ponder but don’t dare speak (“You say your frightened well baby so am I”). McDermott’s wife, Heather Horton, provides backing vocals of restraint giving the songs an emotional center that a singular voice couldn’t match. Most writers speak of the things they think but do not say, where McDermott puts it all on the line right at the beginning of Hey La Hey. How many relationships sour because of a lack of communication? Beneath the shattered heart is realization where instead of running from the chaos of the world, two people, confess to one another that they’re ready to end their dirty little wars. Everyone searches for true love in one form or another and they feel that when they find it, it will be wine and roses, but the truth is real love is when you find someone who allows you to reveal your inner securities. The truths continue on “Hard To Break”, a song whose lead vocal is sung by Kate York with surreal authenticity. The vocals hold you like the embrace of a loved one who doesn’t want to let go. The melody is beneath the surface (as are McDermott’s vocals), amid lush instrumentation, including minimal percussion and an airy piano allowing the lyrics to come into focus.
“I Wanna Know Why” has an upbeat chorus songs asks questions of the heart in the midst of an urgent performance. “The Great American Novel” paints a picture of frustration with lyrics rich in detail with some fancy name-dropping with a jaunty arrangement evoking Bob Dylan at his best. “Dream Come True” is a revitalizing tale where love appears to solve all issues as McDermott pulls from his own experiences to bring light to the forefront. The acoustic laden “Room 411” is one filled with longing where McDermott’s whispered vocal adds to the song’s eeriness and spellbinding conclusion. Every single song on this record brings sensibility to the forefront. Rock N’ Roll is often deemed an art form of rebellion, yet McDermott is revolting by placing his characters in indisputable situations. It’s easy to write a love song, it’s tricky to write a love song that reflects real life. We all love the dreamy romance Hollywood conjures up, but none of it is plausible. McDermott has found his voice by pulling from his own life, punctuating his own emotions and in the process has made the preeminent record of his career and one of 2009’s finest as well.
The album’s proper closer, “Carry Your Cross” is a plaintive piano ballad features a tender vocal that is iridescently beautiful. The unadorned accompaniment compliments his brooding vocal that is so compelling and titanic it will strain your tear ducts. Given to a producer with radio in mind, they would have embellished the tune until it soared like a 747 into the sky and the heart of the song would have vanished. McDermott’s syncopated vocal on “I’d take your doubt and fear when trouble’s looming near” may be one of the greatest declarations of resolve and awakening in all of popular music. “Carry Your Cross” finds McDermott laying his life on the line with weighty depth. Few artists can excel with arrangements this subtle and make them so utterly believable. Years from now, even if McDermott falls off my radar again, this song will haunt me and its sudden conclusion will forever overwhelm and render me speechless.
Hey La Hey houses a sense of love and wonderment in its songs. One route to the new found happiness would have been to write over-the-top love ballads with titles as heroic as the instrumentation. McDermott twisted the idea of love, loss and yearning on its head with delicate and supple arrangements that may not find their way to life-FM radio stations, but stick to your insides because they are drenched with enthralling emotion. Characters discuss “If I knew now what I knew then” scenarios evoking reconciliation with their past. You hear the ache, pain and love where life experiences drip out of these songs wetting the listener in a fashion where answers slowly appear. And to think I almost never heard this record? If someone had not reached out to me, I wouldn’t know that this album exists and I definitely would not have sought it out. Chalk it up to luck, chance or whatever else, but I feel blessed to have this record in my possession, because Hey La Hey is brimming with fiery emotions that are so undeniable they burn themselves into your mind. There’s an overriding sense of responsibility and redemption on these songs. Instead of merely longing for a lost love, these characters take actions towards emancipation. True love is the ultimate prescription for failed dreams. As long as we have someone to bestow momentary glimpses of indisputable truth and beauty, the rest of life’s turbulences are far less devastating. When there’s no inhibition or shame, then one is truly free.
Anthony Kuzminski is a Chicago based writer and Special Features Editor for the antiMusic Network and his daily writings can be read at The Screen Door and can be contacted at thescreendoor AT gmail DOT com.
