I’ve had an itch to listen to some more Nils Lofgren ever since I listened to his band, Grin’s, 1971 self-titled album, Grin. It was such a great showcase of songwriting, lyricism, and instrumentation. I’ve been listening to songs from that album nearly daily since then.
“Be Good Tonight” starts out the album with sweet sounding guitar. Seriously, I can’t believe I’d never heard of Nils until recently, especially as a guitar player and music enthusiast myself. Great start with a short song.
“Back It Up” is a relatively short tune with a nice upbeat feel to it. It almost sounds like it’s out of some weird parallel timeline where 80s songs were written and played in an early 70s style of rock and roll. It’s pretty awesome honestly. Those guitars in the song are really sweet, seriously, and especially that little guitar solo from Lofgren.
“One More Saturday Night” has a tight sloppiness to it – it’s strange. The acoustics on the outside of the soundscape really encapsulate the inner portions of the song and create this unique feel that’s pretty sweet. The tone of Nils’ guitar is absolutely awesome. How Nils escaped larger commercial success with his personal musical endeavors is beyond my comprehension.
“If I Say It, It’s So” starts out with some absolutely awesome rock and roll (with some southern inflection) piano. That guitar is absolutely a spectacle to listen to, but the piano really does an excellent job of carrying the track down the line. The bass does an excellent job of giving the piano that extra oomf to it. And I must say, I really dig the tone of the drums in this one.
“I Don’t Want to Know” almost has a country feel at first, but goes back to something a little bluesier and a little rockier. Wow, color me impressed. I feel like I’ve heard music called roots rock or heartland rock before, but that’s this music to its very core in my opinion. All the instruments sound like they’re dancing around one another, in an attempt to play the blues, but they’re all enjoying the jam too much to be playing the blues.
“Keith Don’t Go (Ode to the Glimmer Twin)” starts out with some speed. This album. much like Grin’s 1971 self-titled album, doesn’t take any breaks at all with its momentum. The energy is so high it’s absolutely impressive. Wow, that guitar is awesome. Something worth mentioning to is the scant use of background vocals in a chorus behind the lead vocals creating this strange effect where the song is almost trying to catch up with itself. Wow, that momentum doesn’t ever let up, and that guitar is awesome. Wow. The outro is insane. Not much I feel I can say about this listening experience.
“Can’t Buy a Break” is a bit more mellow sounding, but the energy is still so high. That guitar intro is awesome. So simple and so intricate at different times. Wow. There’s times when I feel like the song is rowing down a river, and then all of a sudden we’re rowing against rapids going upstream. Absolutely awesome.
“Duty” starts out so quickly. There’s almost no transition between this song and the previous, but it keeps up that momentum so well, almost as if this album is one long continuous thought. The piano in this song reminds me of something like ’74 era Grateful Dead a bit. Wow that drum break is absolutely awesome. It sounds like the band had an awesome time recording this album.
“The Sun Hasn’t Set On This Boy Yet” has a bluesy background to the song, but is overshadowed by a sense of hope and optimism in the track. The piano is sort of rollicking around in this one. The song, or the album for that matter, really never slows down one little bit.
“Rock and Roll Crook” has an awesome classic rock feel to it immediately. Almost reminiscent of Led Zeppelin in a manner of speaking. That guitar is absolutely awesome. I feel like there’s some proto-punk elements to the song as well, but that’s just my opinion. Wow, that guitar solo really wows. I’ve said wow a lot this album, but wow. Nils Lofgren is someone to definitely check out if you haven’t already.
“Two By Two” has a sort of near-the-border feel to it. That acoustic guitar is pretty awesome, and just demonstrates Lofgren’s virtuosity on the instrument. The album never lets off the gas pedal. Absolutely awesome. The background vocals really impress me in the way they’re used in relation to the rest of the track. The acoustic solo feels quite soulful in nature to me.
“Goin’ Back” has that classic heartland feel to it that I’ve mentioned already. There’s so much authenticity in this song and entire album. Wow, that piano solo really adds some flare to the song and album that feels like it’s been teased the whole album without my knowing. Great ending to the album, it feels like it’s resolving things built up throughout the entire experience of the album.
This album was absolutely awesome. I’m absolutely sold on Nils Lofgren at this point. If you haven’t checked out his original band, Grin, or any of his solo stuff, you’ll hopefully enjoy it as much as I did.
-A