Ten Songs (studio album)
by Tucker Zimmerman

From Mercury 10/19/2017 19:58

Its hard to put my finger on exactly what makes this album so cool. So, I'll default to EVERYTHING!

As much as I'd love to end this review there, I won't. Just looking at the most obvious elements, I will start with Tucker's cool as hell vocals. When he rocking out with his strange brand of Blues Rock on the opener "Bird Lives" for example, he sounds like Ryan Adams when he is at his most rocking. His voice has a great growl and emotional heft. When he switches to the more wordy, poetic songs like track 2 October Mornings, his voice sounds almost breathless and wondrous at times, its just very unique.

Next, really I can't say enough about the bassist here, none other than Tony Visconti, kills throughout. The grooves are rock freakin' solid and so cool. They ground the whole menacing vibe of even the lightest tracks. The rest of the band is pretty fabulous, the drummer Aynsley Dunbar is thundering at the right times (listen to the classic "A Face Who Hasn't Sold Out" as an example of how baller the drums are), then the organist is a little known beast named RICK WAKEMAN and he expectedly handles the organs and keys to amazing effect throughout.

And another cool thing here is, I don't know how else to describe it other than the album has a clear eyed, intense purpose. Tucker Zimmerman just sounds like a man possessed here. The words are sharp, at times cloudy in meaning but clear in mood, the band again most definitely rages on the rockers here - can't praise enough the greatness which is "A Face That Hasn't Sold Out - and they sound like a coiled unit of great precision on the more ethereal, dreamy tracks here like "October Mornings" and "The Roadrunner".

The lyrics are gorgeous. And they definitely deserve more attentive listening and reading from me which I haven't given them yet.

The music is a consistently engaging, timeless blend of folk, some psychedelic elements, dreamy pop, and blues rock. This album just sounds great, and to my modern ears, this sounds as cutting edge and cool today as it did in '69.

Also the pure rage of "Children of Fear" is a sound to behold. On this track and the throughout the whole album, Tucker Zimmerman just seems like that dude at a party who is so intense, so clearly bursting with ideas and purpose, and yet so bristly, that you are not sure you want to get into a conversation with him, cuz you know he's just going to run rings around you and you won't be able to get a word in. I mean, just look at that cover! The dude was a man on a mission and was not to be fucked with!

Also I wanted to say that all the songs are great! I only mentioned the first half, but the songs on side 2 are just as breathtaking at times. For example "Upside Down Circus World" is stunning, and so goddamn pristinely gorgeous and groovy and, yes, kinda circus feeling. The folk dream of "The Wind Returns Into The Night" with its glow of loping bass and the wreathe of ornamental harmonica cries, and with the fervor of rambling streaming poetry, is a goodie. Oh and "Running Running From Moment to Moment" is a pop folk songs which is as good as it is surprising in the context of the album, and can I just say...yet again... the bass playing here and on literally every track here, makes me fill up with the warm bliss? Okay, so there.

Anyway, this is pretty great.

Rating: 9.2/10