ABBIE
GALE - 2
(CD,
Inner Ear)
There are certain things that will never fade, that
won’t ever give in and that won’t ever lose their importance. There are
some things that have grounded themselves so deeply in the collective minds
of the people, or at least a part of people, that they are visible and
tangible almost by instinct as soon as the senses set themselves to them. A
female singing voice over a driving beat is one of those things. A
fascinating voice, deep and sensual at the same time as it is angelic and
uplifting. A voice that is able to vibrate on inside the listeners brain and
body like a real wave of energy.
Another things is the everlasting power of the
pop-song, a power that works by slowly and gently creeping into the mind and
re-arranging mindsets and emotions there. A song that makes you feel good
before you even realize that you hear it. A song like “Clown” on the
second album by the pop-band Abbie Gale. Or one that glistens and glimmers
with eternal shine and polish, like the sparkling moonlight on the nightly
waves of the ocean, like the opener “Life after Life”. Or the pounding
wall of driving guitars and forceful rhythm section that is “Wanted”.
Two thing are obvious from this introduction. The first
is that Abbie Gale is obviously not your average pop band that pops up at
every corner in every nation of the world. Bands that consist of some people
who know each other by chance or by having grown up together and who form a
band for no other reason than finding no better way to channel their
creativity. Yesterday evening I heard the hostess of a show on the Austrian
alternative state-owned radio say, that if she “hears something
special”, the least she can do is to play it on the radio. I neither
remember the name of the band nor the name of the song, because there was
nothing special to be heard. But I hear something special on this album on
every corner. Not in the arrangements and not in the lyrics and not in the
basic set up, but in the final mix of sounds, the way parts of the songs
flow into each other organically, probably it is just a matter of attitude
and a will to perfection.
The songwriting and arrangement abilities of Salvatore,
probably the main mind behind Abbie Gale, for instance make him drive a song
to its climax (like “Gone”) and then, where every other producer would
have put in a pause of a second only to give the listener another round of
the refrain, the song just stops. And the next song on the album is a
wonderful, slow song with dreamy chords and introspective singing of Evira,
the singer I praised so much above, and when she goes “so take me home /
take me into your arms / let me see your world” you think, yes, okay,
let’s go. And suddenly your world starts to look a lot better and warmer
than it did before.
The other thing is that “2” is by all means an
album with a lot of variety, though on the surface it contains the same
sound in every song. But there is enough in the mix to keep you entertained
– which in itself is probably a wrong thought, because wherever has it
been written down that being kept entertained is the ultimate goal in life?
Or that any kind of music should be entertaining at all? – and most of all
in the melodies themselves. Anybody knows the story, if you have found
something good then even the slightest or smallest variations keep you
entertained. There is also the flow of the songs, that are always changing
and building up to climaxes like arches in ancient architecture or the
eternal flow off ebb and tide. Only the first and the last song, “Life
after life” and “Danko” respectively , somewhat fall put of this
order, by being fundamentally different.
Almost all of the songs by Abbie Gale are about love,
about the wonderful moment when a new world opens, when your heart and mind
are flooded with new and exciting wonders and experiences. Falling and
staying in love – even the most cynic and grumpy old men (like me!)
sometimes has to admit that these are the main things in live. You can find
it here concentrated into some simple lines of lyrics all over, but probably
best of all in a song simply called “Lovesong” and its climaxing line of
“Oh God please make this moment last.”
By all means, Abbie Gale should be playing big
festivals this next summer, they should be on the cover of all major
alternative rock magazines, they should be able to send their sounds to the
interested world. Songs like “Air” should be able to blow away all the
crap that has been released with lots of money and big marketing budgets.
This record is a lot like falling in love either for new or all over again,
and it could never be better than that, right? How much joy and excitement
such an inconspicious package may bring. It makes all the hastle and pain
seemworthwhile. By the way, Abbie Gale are from Greece, but does it really
matter in the universal world of pop music?
