Review: Chuck Ragan - The Blueprint Sessions (singles club and CD)
Label: No Idea Records
Released: September 2006 - June 2007
For those expecting to hear the next generation of Hot Water Music, go buy the Draft's In a Million Pieces. Chuck Ragan's The Blueprint Sessions only shares his former band's emotional appeal, but the music itself is far closer to the raw folk/punk that he did with Rumbleseat.
This is not a traditional release. It came out as a series of 7 inches limited to 1100. Subscribers got an additional 7 inch and a CD that included everything from the vinyl along with two bonus tracks. It wasn't cheap, but the unique format along with No Idea's beautiful (as always) vinyl made for a great package.
The Blueprint Sessions is as raw as it can be, largely just Ragan and his guitar and an occasional harmonica. There are no studio tricks to clean it up or cover up its lumps. That's not to say it's poorly recorded, because it isn't. It is perhaps more challenging to capture the coarse, organic nature of roughhewn passion than it is to process that passion into clean perfection. Perfection, after all, is counter to the purity of Ragan's music. Perfection would ruin it.
Lyrically, Ragan wears his heart on his sleeve. Not in the maudlin way that is so characteristic of the dying emo genre, but in a way that creates trust through exposure. He reaches out to the misfits "In the corner, where all the lost souls have been found." He touches on old-time country loneliness and mortality on "Hold My Bed." "For Broken Ears," a protest song against the war in Iraq, is subtle enough not to mention anyone by name, yet we all know who and what he's talking about. "Valentine" could be the love of a lifetime or a moment or, more likely, the lifetime in a moment. Everything Ragan touches, he touches with his soul, like an old Gospel recording. The Blueprint Sessions is a soul-enriching experience and it's about all of life, including death. The album itself might be best captured in Ragan's own words, "I wanna dance like nobody's watching, and sing like nobody cares. Climb to the top of the mountains we see to find peace and to die up there."
Chuck Ragan is not the next Bob Dylan. He's poetic, but not obscure. His power chord folk owes some debt to Billy Bragg, but his content has a more raw, emotional appeal. At his core, he may be most like Johnny Cash. There are no frills, no facades, no lies, just Chuck reaching out and touching us with honesty, passion and love (and a fair dose of righteous anger). This is not the kind of album that changes music. Instead, it's the kind of album that changes hearts.
Rating: 10/10
Released: September 2006 - June 2007
For those expecting to hear the next generation of Hot Water Music, go buy the Draft's In a Million Pieces. Chuck Ragan's The Blueprint Sessions only shares his former band's emotional appeal, but the music itself is far closer to the raw folk/punk that he did with Rumbleseat.
This is not a traditional release. It came out as a series of 7 inches limited to 1100. Subscribers got an additional 7 inch and a CD that included everything from the vinyl along with two bonus tracks. It wasn't cheap, but the unique format along with No Idea's beautiful (as always) vinyl made for a great package.
The Blueprint Sessions is as raw as it can be, largely just Ragan and his guitar and an occasional harmonica. There are no studio tricks to clean it up or cover up its lumps. That's not to say it's poorly recorded, because it isn't. It is perhaps more challenging to capture the coarse, organic nature of roughhewn passion than it is to process that passion into clean perfection. Perfection, after all, is counter to the purity of Ragan's music. Perfection would ruin it.
Lyrically, Ragan wears his heart on his sleeve. Not in the maudlin way that is so characteristic of the dying emo genre, but in a way that creates trust through exposure. He reaches out to the misfits "In the corner, where all the lost souls have been found." He touches on old-time country loneliness and mortality on "Hold My Bed." "For Broken Ears," a protest song against the war in Iraq, is subtle enough not to mention anyone by name, yet we all know who and what he's talking about. "Valentine" could be the love of a lifetime or a moment or, more likely, the lifetime in a moment. Everything Ragan touches, he touches with his soul, like an old Gospel recording. The Blueprint Sessions is a soul-enriching experience and it's about all of life, including death. The album itself might be best captured in Ragan's own words, "I wanna dance like nobody's watching, and sing like nobody cares. Climb to the top of the mountains we see to find peace and to die up there."
Chuck Ragan is not the next Bob Dylan. He's poetic, but not obscure. His power chord folk owes some debt to Billy Bragg, but his content has a more raw, emotional appeal. At his core, he may be most like Johnny Cash. There are no frills, no facades, no lies, just Chuck reaching out and touching us with honesty, passion and love (and a fair dose of righteous anger). This is not the kind of album that changes music. Instead, it's the kind of album that changes hearts.
Rating: 10/10
posted by bob_vinyl at 12:02 PM
1 Comments:
Wow. This sounds amazing. I went to No Idea to see if I could buy it, but no luck since I'm not a subscriber or whatever. Kind of annoying.
I'll check back to see when you review one of his other albums, and if it's as good, I'll check it out.
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