Category Archives: album review

May 2, 2022 · 5:00 am

Album Review: “Songs From the Green Couch” by Seth Swirsky

I got an email from Seth Swirsky‘s people asking if I’d be interested in reviewing his latest album – Songs From the Green Couch. For those who have been reading my blog for awhile, you may remember me reviewing his book – 21 Ways to a Happier Depression in 2018 and his album Now It’s All This by The Red Button in 2017. For those who don’t following along, Seth wrote the Grammy nominated song “Tell it to My Heart” for Taylor Dane. He is also a painter, so he’s quite the talented fellow!

There’s no denying Seth Swirsky’s talent for writing great songs with nostalgic melodies. Songs from the Green Couch will invoke memories of tunes from the 50s through modern day. You can hear the Beatles influence in several songs. Cashmere Sweaters is a beautiful (though a bit corny) song with an undeniable Beatles imprint. What Was I Thinking feels very McCartney/Wings-ish, and Dead has that dark John Lennon feel to it.

If you’re a fan of The Monkees, you’ll probably dig the first track – Sunny Day. And for the 70s soft rock fans there is the sweet sound of Every Time…that reminded me of Gilbert O’Sullivan.

Don’t let the early rock influences fool you…this is a great 15 original song album for putting on shuffle to mellow out with it’s really sweet love song – You Kind of Mood or what I like to call Seth’s laundry list of chores – New Painting! And then there is the power pop song I Don’t Wanna Lose You…

I rate this album, 4 out of 4 Beetles!

Album Review: “Now It’s All This!” by The Red Button

I’ve come to trust that whenever my PR friend Maureen Daye Pietoso from JEM Records sends me information about the latest band she’s promoting that it’s going to be well worth my while to listen! This one doesn’t do anything but just reconfirmed this belief.

Now It’s All This! is The Red Button‘s third album, but it’s a whole lot more than just that. This album not only contains 6 new songs, and 4 unplugged remakes, it also contains their first two albums…33 tracks in all! The Red Button is made up of Seth Swirsky (whose name I’ve seen around Facebook but had no idea what he did for a living!) and Mike Ruekberg.

It was hard to pinpoint all the influences and sounds in this band, there are just so many! In the new songs, you’ll not only hear that Beatlesque sound that you would expect to be there if it’s being reviewed on this blog, but you’re also going to hear influential hints of The Monkees, The Knack and Weezer all rolled into the EP’s six tracks. The very first track on the new EP, Can’t Let Candy Go, is going to make you want to break out your Go-Go boots and bell bottoms and dance. Tracy’s Party and the title track are definitely in the Beatlesque style. Solitude Saturday has what I thought were some great harmonies reminiscent of the 70’s and reminded me a lot of Gilbert O’Sullivan. And the song Picture, one of the unplugged songs, has definite sounds of something Brian Wilson might have written for the Beach Boys.

This album is power-pop at it’s very best. It’ll take you back with the good feelings of the songs from the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s while still being able to stand up to the very best in today’s pop music. Whether you download it or buy the actual CD, you’re going to love it! And for that reason…

I rate this CD, 4 out of 4 Beetles!

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Filed under album review

Tagged as 1960's, 1970's, 1980's, Mike Ruekberg, Now It's All This!, Power Pop, Seth Swirsky, The Red Button

June 11, 2017 · 11:33 am

Album/CD Review: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – 50th Anniversary Edition

I decided it was time for me to review something new, so I went out and bought the new Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – 2 CD Deluxe Edition. You can pick up various packaging for the revised/remix of the original album (1 CD, 2 CD, Deluxe, etc.), but I decided that for my own purposes all I really needed was the 2 CD set with the new mix and a CD of outtakes (I won’t be reviewing the outtakes).

In order to fully understand what Giles Martin did in his editing of the original cuts, I pulled out my Sgt. Pepper’s CD from 1987 and tried desperately to get my old 5 disc player to play the two discs in spiral mode so I could hear the old, then new version of each track…but alas, after 2 hours of wrestling with both our players, I ended up having to do it manually! UGH…time warp back to the 1980s!

Well, it didn’t take long to hear the difference! The older disc has a duller, more muted sound to it and the tracks sound very distinct as they change from speaker to speaker. The new version is an amazing mix that flows…Picture yourself in a boat on a river, With tangerine trees and marmalade skies INDEED! The music literally surrounds you and it made me sorry I was listening to it on just two speakers. My next purchase is going to be a fantastic set of headphones for just the purpose of listening to this CD. I also can’t wait to get to listening to these mind blowing, full bodied moving tunes in the six speaker sound chamber of my car. It’s so hard to describe, maybe you just have to be there! And for that reason…

I rate this album/CD 5 out of 4 Beetles! (George Martin included this time…)