Music Existence Because of Music, We Exist
Paul Meadow – Cheap & Easy
At first glance, you’d be forgiven if you thought Paul Meadow was a single person. But alas, it’s merely the moniker of Brooklyn duo Stirling Krusing and Chris Lee. Labeling their sound as slop folk, Paul Meadow have dazzled fans in their native borough for the better part of the past few years. This EP is Produced by Gabriel Galvin & Paul Meadow
Recorded by Amanda DeCastro.
I really like this record, the consensus is that it’s an awesome piece of work from beginning to end. I’ve never started a review off like that in all my years of writing about music. But to be perfectly honest, it is great stuff, every second of it is a fresh wind of pure artistic expression that delicately takes itself more playful than serious. This review demands your attention because the release must be exposed.
It starts off with “I Love This Town,” which hits the first home run of the set. It takes a little while to get going at first listen but that is nothing new. This track establishes everything by mid-way through. You can do anything to this music from relaxing to moving about to even dancing. To explain that in what is referred to as “slop folk” it just has something organic about it, even though it’s a pretty beat driven track. It loses no tech values either, landing more between alternative rock and new wave territory. I love this song.
The folk factor instantly kicks in on “Heart Of A Dog” and the slop factor is written all over it with a slacking on the strings, which by the time the first verse is over the guitar comes on very strong and it’s excellent, no question about the talent whatsoever. This song suffers from being way too short though, but nevertheless a powerful statement. But it’s well placed among the other tracks, and I don’t take any points away from it all because of this, I could just use a good five minutes more of what is still a great song.
Next up is the title track and wow, just wow, this is epic. “Cheap & Easy” is a sublime delivery indeed, a real laid back combo of the two previous tracks, playing extremely deep. But this is actually not a deep title in the first place, so that’s a bit of a surprise but loses nothing on the ears over that point, it’s just not an expected pace thus far on the disc. To tell more about it, after some relaxing enticement the guitar once again comes on strong and the chops go into a hard rock twist with an absolutely incendiary, very high in the mix solo. It’s just so hard to turn a deaf ear to this. All I can think of is wanting more than an EP’s worth of music from this outfit, as I’m not your biggest fan of EP releases, and would normally shave a point or sometimes two because of it. Not here, as it does serve well in making up for it with the strength of material on offer.
With another winner to describe in the shape of “Killer Of Dreams,” the duo so far really starts to remind me of The Wallflowers here, which is a band I’ve always liked. I really have to say this is where it all comes together with yet another epic monster. This is so good I have to rave about the whole release simply on this one effort alone. Perhaps when something instantly clicks it isn’t the right time to evaluate it on paper, but trust me I’ve extensively plundered this whole record, and it gets better with every listen. I think it’s worth twice the price for this one song alone. You don’t get this everyday anymore, that’s for sure. It’s one of the tracks that spells an accessible radio hit, but at the same time flies way above the qualification. This is just outstanding, and they chose to do a promo video for it as well, which I also recommend seeking out for another angle of this track.
After being battered and begging for more, the final track “The Devil You Know” comes bouncing in and lifts all the weight of the previous tracks right up to an even somehow higher note. This too is an awesome little number that really cooks up all of what Paul Meadow are about. Talk about having it all, they knock another one out of the park with this amazing tune that has just about everything and calls the set nothing short of jubilant. It’s such a fresh and crisp recording to its credit as well, it’s all so very good without a bum note in sight. I can’t really fault any of it and that’s not easy these days, as I’m always looking for the one hundred percent efforts in a fifty to eighty percent era. It brings me to say such truths, or I’d hold my tongue on that an opinion. But this is over the top good to my ears, as I continue to listen to and enjoy everything about it. If you don’t like this, I can only make a taste call, that’s about it. These guys flat out rock.
CD BABY: https://www.cdbaby.com/cd/paulmeadow2
Larry Toering
5/5
