This album from the budding, classic 4-piece Rock outfit Eve Casino is a delightful release of a standard of quality to its components that’s extraordinary high. An album of crisp, neat, invigorating songs that effortlessly evoke the 60’s Rock’N’Roll revolution and the 70’s Flower Power with its immaculate songwriting and awesome performances across the board.
Eve Casino is an up-and-coming act hailing from Chicago, Illinois. They self-produce their music through 2 members who work at the Enviyon Recording Studio which was home to multi-platinum songs, and a Diamond certified album as well, so it is safe to say that this album suffers no problems whatsoever on the “production quality” front. Ryan Hegarty, Marco Obaya, Sam Skilnik, and Chris Taylor who compose this band are all talented players, respectively on the bass, lead, rhythm guitar, and drums.
The album’s 8 songs are incredibly easy to set apart, while all maintaining a certain cohesion that makes this album a breeze to listen to, a hallmark of truly professional outfits, and a feat that many masters of the trade have at one time failed to nail. Hotter starts things off with an aptly hot riff. A blues rock drone with a sizzling attitude and rich lyrics and sounds. The singing here sounds charismatic and entertaining, the drums organic and crisp, the bass is thick and fulfilling, and when it gets on along with the guitar riff around the 4 minutes 20 seconds mark, wonderful things start happening. The sophomore Before I Hit The Ground is melancholic, rocking, and melodic, with charismatic beats. The guitar soloing strikes me as very engaging and understated, sounding musical and cool, while staying within relatable lines, and never sounding show off-y or excessive. The noodled arpeggio on the guitar, after the solo ends, is incredibly inventive and compelling, made me perk my ears.
Blues Whip is a grand, slow 12-bar blues with a twist. Never settling for a major or minor blues sound, this incredibly creative piece sounds drunken and hazy. A song led by the singing, the vocalist here is incredibly aware of where his voice starts and where its limits are, and not once attempts to break those boundaries, making the singing on this song sound amazingly smooth and confident, while it reaches all the high notes with stark, educated effortlessness. An amazing display of musicality that evoked the rich soulfulness of Jim Morisson’s performances. Abercrombie Zombie is a piece of inventive, psychedelic, acoustic blues. Wonderfully and warmly produced, the relatable words and the sleepy delivery of them lend this song a truly stand-out personality and make it the most memorable piece on the record up until this point. Fifty Buck Billy concluded a delicious one-two move of outstanding and memorable tunes. With its colorful and playful, yet mysterious and dark composition that has a ton of personality, its neat production and arrangement tricks with the ear-grabbing panned guitars in the beginning, and the immaculate high-pass filter on the voice that gives it a certain megaphone-like quality, this song oozes character and creativity, and with a standout set of lyrics about a compelling, enigmatic character, this entire piece was extremely easy to digest and will be ever easier to come back to time and time again.
Short Circuit is a slow, bluesy ballad, with piano-sounding melodic guitar, and bass and drums so loose and organic they make the whole 7-minute piece sound like a living, breathing, entity. Its social commentary is a nice addition to the varied themes that the album has tackled up till this point. The Penultimate track, Little Gypsy Queen, is a playful thing that sounds major and optimistic, easily calling to the mind The Beach Boys of the early Rolling Stones days. The tastefully overdriven guitars sound rich and exciting, and pretty succulent as well.
Eve Casino’s Here’s The Thing is an album that wonderfully dense with musicality and musical ideas. Gorgeous songwriting, and intense musicality between the 4 band members make it sound like an affair of friendship and passion towards the music, rather than a job that had to be finished, especially as it stands as a self-produced record, and on these grounds alone, I found absolutely no difficulty enjoying most everything this album has to offer. For lovers of Blues, Rock, and Psychedelia, Eve Casino’s latest album will bring joy to your ears and heart.
