I’m not sure if it speaks of a recent trend in modern music or perhaps says more about the sort of music I chose to write about, but a lot of music landing on my desk these days—well, that deemed interesting enough to make the cut—sounds as if it should have been in my record collection years ago. Not in a “heard it all before” sort of way, but in a way that suggests it holds the same songwriting values and favors similar sentiments and styles to some of the music that is now considered to be classic.
Take “California,” a reissue by Social Gravy and a precursor sent out to test the water and tease the audience ahead of their next single, “These Are The Times.” Orbiting such celestial sonic icons as The Eagles, The Allman Brothers, and Tom Petty and the Heart Breakers, “California” is a lush and luminous affair.
Drenched in gorgeous harmonies, it weaves strands of the bluesy guitar through chiming soundscapes, slow-burning from spacious, soulful roots-rock to salvos of wide-screen anthemics. It ends in crashing crescendoes of scintillating percussion and driving beats, layers of lush tones, and rich textures, musically a world away from where we first joined it.
If this doesn’t at least help usher in a return to richer and more rewarding music making, pave the way for higher sonic benchmarks and more adventurous and brilliantly extravagant music making, it will be a Big Sur-prise.
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[…] never be covered. Controversial, I know. In my opinion, some songs can’t be improved upon. California has recently covered two of them. As a tribute to the passing of The Beach Boys‘ Brian Wilson […]
[…] Social Gravy must be pretty happy with themselves that a song written and released as a word of warning in 2016 is still relevant enough, perhaps more so, to get a second outing in 2025. And if the timing on both occasions would indicate that “Fools” is a song that sets President Trump in its sights, and it does, but not just him, authoritarianism and hypocrisy, greed and self-serving in public office in general, a bipartisan swipe at the failings of all governments and administrations who forget that they are elected to represent those who voted for them. (Though many of the lines in the song resonate even deeper with what’s going on today than they did when it first saw the light of day.) […]