Stanley, Micheal: The Job

My high school friend's favorite band, Michael Stanley and The Resonators, have returned with a new album full of 13 new tracks. Yes Michael and the band are that prolific. When the ideas come you gotta write and play, eh?

This album starts off strong, like every album Stanley has written. "Everything's Fine" has a funky backbeat and a cynical back slap. "Everything's fine, right up 'till it's not''. And that's that.

"The Job", the title track, lays out the feel for the album's direction and it is followed well by the nice long "Last Good Nerve" which seals the feeling in cement.

The Resonators consist of Tommy Dobeck, on drums; Bob Pelander, playing piano, and adding backing vocals; Danny Powers, playing guitar, and adding backing vocals; Jennifer Lee, on vocals and percussion; Rodney Psyka, on percussion and vocals; Marc Lee Shannon, on guitar and sauce; Eroc Sosinski, on bass and vocals; and Paul Christensen on sax. Ed Caner, adds violin and viola.

The Resonators and Stanley deliver the power and sure handed confidence that only years of touring and recording can deliver in the recording studio. Their music, like wine, has improved with age.

I was recently listening to the Stanley classics, "Redwood Bitters" "My Town" and "He Can't Love You" and they still are fantastic and incite the same powerful feelings they did when they were released. But this new music Michael and the band are making lately delivers the same quality only the songs require the listener to pay more careful attention to the intricacies of the lyrical development. If you do you will be both pleasantly surprised and amazed at how well this band has developed over the years. Songs like "Survive & Advance" are true Eagles – level tracks that demand your attention and deliver excellent musicianship along with their lyrical quality.

"Dark Angels" is another one of those deep lyrical songs like the ones you remember from Springsteen's early works. It will draw you in tight within its over seven minute lyrical stories and excellent piano and organ.

Yes, there still remains that Bruce Springsteen sound, but that is Stanley's influence and the influence "The Boss" had, and I guess still has, on our home town. But Stanley has grown way beyond those roots and should be appreciated for the solid songwriting he has created here and on the last two albums that preceded "The Job".

Yes, it is "The Job"…and Michael Stanley does it well. He adds special sauce with class today. He needs to be appreciated for the talent he and his band have delivered for several decades to his beloved city of Cleveland and beyond. Get "The Job", and listen to how it's done.

Track Listing:

Everything's Fine
The Job
Last Good Nerve
You Just Never Know
Survive & Advance
Maybe This Is The Day
Velvet Parkway
Breaking News
Unfinished Business
Get In Line
Take The Long Way Around
Same River Twice
Dark Angels

Added: September 30th 2014
Reviewer: Mark Johnson
Score:
Related Link: http://www.michaelstanley.com
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Language: english

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