Chris Eckman - The Last Side of the Mountain
Slow starts. I love albums which have the confidence to start gently, letting you drift into the record. Slow is also one of Chris Eckman’s trademarks, remember his cover of Yellow Submarine for The Mojo magazine free cd called Revolver Reloaded (2006)…Known as the frontman-composer, producer & songwriter of The Walkabouts, Eckman is leaving since few years now in Slovenia, consequently the culture of this European country started to influence his work and as a result you have The Last Side of the Mountain (November, 2008 - Glitterhouse). For that album Eckman translated and set into music eleven poems by the Slovene poet Dane Zajc and recorded them at Studio Zuma his personal studio in Ljubljana.
The Last Side of the Mountain is a very beautiful record and with no doubt this is Eckman’s finest work to date, with or without The Walkabouts. This is simply a breathtaking album. For the melancholy flowing from the dozen tracks of The Last Side of the Mountain, for the lyrics, for the enchanting melodies perfectly produced, you have reason enough to love it. Just two small negative remarks, the mournful voice of Chris Eckman – sorry, Chris – and one track that I feel like skipping, The Same, performed with Steve Wynn, that doesn’t really fit with the other songs on this album. Besides you have gems like Scorpions, With What Mouth and the moving Who Will Light Your Path?, a beautiful song ala Elysian Fields, wherein polish vocalist Anita Lipnicka adds sublime harmony vocals.
No songs yet available to listen for free, meanwhile, you can go to his MySpace and give a visit to his Website: thewalkabouts.com/discslast.htm
Label: glitterhouse.com
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Labels: Album reviews, Chris Eckman, The Walkabouts

1 Comments:
I bumped into your blog by chance looking for lyrics of the last side of the mountain :). I agree with you, it's a very nice, a bit melancholic album and I guess my favorite song for now is a duet with Anita...
Anyways, good to have Chris on this side of the Alps (mountains:)). such a refreshment in a not real choice of quasi singers and bands...
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