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| A lonesome figure walks across snowy tundra on the second album from Brooklyns finest. |
With a debut album of instrumental funk that contained plenty of refreshing summer grooves, Tommy Breneck & co. follow with an altogether more wintery record of blues and thought provoking melancholy on The Crossing.
I've got to be honest, pretty much everything about this record is likeable. Stop right there i hear you say, 'that means this review will probably be pretty boring and full of compliments'. But it's actually the imperfectness of the record that creates it's beauty.
For instance, there's a sort of wearyness to the sound of most of the bands instruments, the kind of sound a horn would make when it's been on the road alot is apparent here and for that reason it's a little dog eared in places but full of charm.
Opening with the title track, MSB make the most of intricate harp play as it's tempered by a Knightrider-esque bassline and equally as cool, without the kitsch.
Lights Out sounds like a Bill Conti soundtrack, an uplifting call to battle that Rocky would have been pleased to train to. Later on in the album we're taken to another soundtrack scenario on Seven in The Wind. Three men staring at each other ready to draw weapons. Ennio Morricone could have written this record and with it's slide guitar reverb and slow horn play, it's completely engrossing.
And if this album veers away into melancholy and recession blues, then the only exception is the sunny 'Everyday a Dream' which could have easily fitted onto the bands first album Make The Road By Walking.
*****
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