|
Any and all attempts to classify or aptly describe Alejandro Escovedo's
latest CD, The Boxing Mirror, are hopelessly inadequate. Produced
by The Velvet Underground's John Cale, The Boxing
Mirror finds Escovedo and company delving into the worlds of avant-rock
and post-punk. But even these descriptors fall short. In fact, the
sole cohesive threads throughout The Boxing Mirror are experimentation
and disillusionment, yet these facets are enough somehow to produce
a cohesive collection.
The Boxing Mirror begins with the melancholic "Arizona,"
an introspective tale of love and loss that finds the narrator facing
his demons and himself. "I turned my back on me/and I faced the
face of who I thought I was," Escovedo wails over sinister strings,
crunchy guitars, and haunting synthesizers. The cello- and bass-driven
"Dear Head on the Wall" and the Crazy Horse-inspired
rocker "Notes On Air" (which originally appeared on 2004's
13 Ways to Live compilation) both feature oblique, yet poetic
lyrics by Escovedo's wife, Kim Christoff. The '80s synth-pop
of "Looking For Love" is possibly the album's only weak
point. To be certain, the musical aspects of the song fit quite well
with the overall spirit of experimentation that permeates The Boxing
Mirror, but the lyrics are at times overly simplistic and the
slower portions of the song lack the rock groove present throughout
the album.
"The Ladder" finds Escovedo returning to top lyrical form,
however. A Tejano-flavored waltz consisting mostly of accordion and
acoustic guitar, "The Ladder" is a straightforward, but
poetic love song that is perhaps the least rock-inspired track on
The Boxing Mirror. "Break This Time," by contrast,
is an '80s-esque rocker reminiscent of The Cars' early work,
while "Evita's Lullaby" is a rhapsodic folk-rock love song
imbued with a deep sense of loss that is heightened by the accompanying
mournful string arrangements. The three-chord post-punk disenchantment
of "Sacramento and Polk" is followed by the mellow tremolo
guitar and sophisticated strings of "Died a Little Today."
The Boxing Mirror concludes with the improvised pop-rocker
"Take Your Place" and the heartbreaking title ballad. The
former is a rather direct song about the end of a relationship that
has the flavor of early Prince recordings, while the latter
features military-style drums, dreamy keyboard flourishes, and lyrics
rife with devastation. In fact, the title track could easily be an
allegory for many circumstances in life, from battles we wage in our
day-to-day lives to the unwanted and unnecessary wars our government
forces on us.
For all of the disparate musical styles sampled by Cale and Escovedo,
The Boxing Mirror is a unified album that is anchored by an
ethereal quality, an ambience, a mercurialness. Musically ineffable
and lyrically recondite, The Boxing Mirror is easily the album
of Escovedo's career to date, as well as one of the best CDs of 2006.
-Tracy M. Rogers
Track Listing:
1. Arizona
2. Dearhead On the Wall
3. Notes On Air
4. Looking For Love
5. The Ladder
6. Break This Time
7. Evita's Lullaby
8. Sacramento and Polk
9. I Died A Little Today
10. Take Your Place
11. The Boxing Mirror
Check out more
reviews
 Talk
Back
e-mail the chief
Like this article?
e-mail
it to a friend!
|
Alejandro
Escovedo 
