{"id":862,"date":"2009-03-11T10:06:34","date_gmt":"2009-03-11T15:06:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hightwo.com\/ht\/?p=862"},"modified":"2009-03-11T10:06:34","modified_gmt":"2009-03-11T15:06:34","slug":"reviews-adam-arcuragi-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/reviews-adam-arcuragi-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Reviews – Adam Arcuragi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Author: Paul Bozzo
\n <\/em>Source: Treble 04.05.2006
\nLink to this article<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Certain aspects of music have stayed generally constant throughout existence. For the most part, people agree that a catchy chorus that divides a song into separate sections is a desirable characteristic in a song. Most would say that shorter is better, and an untrained voice is not an asset. Adam Arcuragi seems to have disregarded most of these rules and created songs people aren’t used to hearing on his self-titled debut album. The album is an adventurous one, and it seems as if the risk was worth taking. Arcuragi’s instrumentation is steady and rhythmic, but his furious energy and his raw voice add grit to his sometimes hypnotic ballads. Arcuragi’s songs also do not clearly distinguish between what is chorus and what is regular verse. Instead, Arcuragi uses different inflections upon his voice and his instrument to highlight certain areas of a song. This provides a great vehicle for Arcuragi’s sophisticated lyrics and unceasing rhythm of words, as the song becomes glimpses into a photo album of lyrical imagery.<\/p>\n

Adam Arcuragi is a literary renaissance man, writing poems and plays, and has been writing songs for about five years. He has recorded in a large number of locales, including an antique house, a porch, and eventually a studio. His wandering ways of performing and recording give him the image of a nomadic troubadour, singing of his travels across this country, with people stepping in when needed to fill in whatever holes come along on the trip. He did not shy away from bringing along the help of many people, including Mike Kennedy (Mazarin\/Lefty’s Deceiver), Charlie Hall, and Rick Flom. While Arcuragi holds the forefront in all of the songs with vocals and guitar, all of his help is in the background, adding a little spice and ambiance to the songs that play off very well.<\/p>\n

The album’s first track is a paradigm for the rest of the album, as all of the elements that make Arcuragi’s songs his are present. The rhythm of the entire song is set at the start with Michael Spinka’s vibraphone before Arcuragi chimes in on guitar. From here, Arcuragi does a wonderful job of molding his lyrics to stay within this rhythm. The lyrics burst out of the steady rhythm of the song by their plain inventiveness combined with marvelous imagery of “these precious tired fingers will play upon the sinews of my legs<\/em>.” “1981” features a strong strumming of Arcuragi’s guitar and a somewhat coarser voice than usual, creating a sound similar to The Mountain Goats. The album tones down in the middle creating mellow tunes like “Little Yellow Boat” and “Part of the Sky.” The last three tracks are songs that break the mold of the rest of the album with the somber “The Dog is Dead, Amen,” the staccato feel of “Philadelphia (The Screen)” and the comparably celebratory “The Christmas Song.”<\/p>\n

Challenging songwriters are a blessing to the industry, making sure that popular musicians are always on their toes, never letting new sounds stagnate. Arcuragi’s unique method and performance of relatively simple songs will surely turn a few heads and get the rest up to speed.<\/p>\n

Similar Albums:<\/strong>
\nMatt Pond PA – Several Arrows Later<\/a><\/em>
\nMountain Goats – The Sunset Tree<\/a><\/em>
\nBright Eyes – Letting Off the Happiness<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author: Paul Bozzo Source: Treble 04.05.2006 Link to this article Certain aspects of music have stayed generally constant throughout existence. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_eb_attr":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[66,47,69,50,60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adam-arcuragi-artists","category-artists","category-ht006","category-releases","category-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","acf":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4346,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/reviews-adam-arcuragi-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":862,"position":0},"title":"Reviews – Adam Arcuragi","author":"admin","date":"March 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Author: John Schacht Source: All Music Guide Link to this article The debut full-length from Philadelphia singer\/songwriter Adam Arcuragi is the sonic cousin to the melancholic folk of Nick Drake and current sepia-tinged fellow travelers like Mark Kozelek, Damien Jurado, acoustic Chris Mills, and Dolorean. Like the latter's debut, Not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adam Arcuragi"","block_context":{"text":"Adam Arcuragi","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/category\/adam-arcuragi-artists\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4347,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/reviews-adam-arcuragi-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":862,"position":1},"title":"Reviews – Adam Arcuragi","author":"admin","date":"March 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Author: Brian McMurray Source: Harmonium Link to this article There\u2019s a reason some artists are dubbed with the title of singer\/songwriter. Let\u2019s face it, there are a lot of musicians that both sing and write their own music, but not all of them are considered singer\/songwriters. It\u2019s no surprise that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adam Arcuragi"","block_context":{"text":"Adam Arcuragi","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/category\/adam-arcuragi-artists\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4351,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/ht024\/","url_meta":{"origin":862,"position":2},"title":"Adam Arcuragi: I Am Become Joy","author":"Daniel Piotrowski","date":"August 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"[download#27#nohits] [download#27#image] Math People and Private Music Almost Always Go With Them We Steal People's Medicine The Guns That Bring the Morning Home Her Festival Song The Long Route 38 Lunch in Field Four Bottom of the River Adam Arcuragi: vocals, guitar David Hartley: guitar, bass guitar, trumpet Brian Christinzio:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adam Arcuragi"","block_context":{"text":"Adam Arcuragi","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/category\/adam-arcuragi-artists\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"HT024LPweb","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/HT024LPweb.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2069,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/new-adam-arcuragi-cdlp-out-in-january\/","url_meta":{"origin":862,"position":3},"title":"New Adam Arcuragi CD\/LP out in January","author":"Daniel Piotrowski","date":"January 26, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"We are \u00a0excited to report that Adam Arcuragi's new record Like a fire that consumes all before it...\u00a0is being featured on NPR's 'First Listen' this week! . The album will be coming out through Thirty Tigers on January 31. NPR is streaming all of the songs up until the release\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adam Arcuragi"","block_context":{"text":"Adam Arcuragi","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/category\/adam-arcuragi-artists\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":117,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/adam-arcuragi-adam-arcuragi\/","url_meta":{"origin":862,"position":4},"title":"Adam Arcuragi: Adam Arcuragi","author":"Daniel Piotrowski","date":"February 1, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"All the Bells 1981 Delicate Little Yellow Boat The Song the Sinner Sings RSMPA\u2122 Part of the Sky Broken Throat 'The Dog is Dead, Amen' The Screen The Christmas Song Out: Spring 2006 Features contributions from Janet Kim, Charlie Hall, Mike Kennedy, Rick Flom, Ryan McLaughlin, Derek Zglenski, Eve Miller,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"mp3","src":"images\/stories\/mp3.gif","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":403,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/ht020\/","url_meta":{"origin":862,"position":5},"title":"Adam Arcuragi: Soldiers for Feet","author":"Daniel Piotrowski","date":"May 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Sin is Just an Old Archery Term The Old Sears and Roebuck Catalogue Go With Them The Belgian Almost Always Adam Arcuragi: vocals, guitar, vocals David Hartley: guitar, vocal, trumpet, vocals Todd Starlin: trumpet, vocals Brian Christinzio: organ, vocal Maryanne Doman: dobro Tom Bendel: percussion Gretchen Lohse: violin, viola Joshua\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adam Arcuragi"","block_context":{"text":"Adam Arcuragi","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/category\/adam-arcuragi-artists\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adam Arcuragi - Soldiers for Feet","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/ht020-200x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}