Chris Barron Goes Classic & Refined On ‘Angels and One-Armed Jugglers’ (ALBUM REVIEW)

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Don’t expect the alt-rock glory of early 90s Spin Doctors on Chris Barron’s Angels and One-Armed Jugglers. This is Barron taking a rather meandering journey through eleven originals, that touch on jazz, blues, Broadway, and solo performance. In fact, every tune was written by Barron alone with his guitar and they will ultimately be performed that way when touring.  For this effort, though, he adorns most of the tunes with an array of our times. Co-produced by Roman Klun, the sessions feature Saturday Night Live drummer Shawn Pelton, bassist Jesse Murphy and an array of NYC players the three recruited.

Barron reflects on the album this way, “Y’ know, thematically it’s about the cocktail party at the apocalypse, the decline of the American empire and just a bunch of lemmings in neckties going over the edge. But it’s very personal, too, and there’s a lot of my own sadness in there. Anybody can see the world is a deeply unfair place. It’s the responsibility of the artist to give some kind of consolation. Yes, the world is fucked up. But there is still wonder. And there’s still a twist of comedy.” Amidst the doom and gloom, one can still hold on to a sense of humor.

Barron further explains that he’s never been interested in genres, just songs. He acts purely on instinct and purposely avoids adhering to rules or structure. The title track evokes a Broadway feel, having been inspired by Barron’s Queens neighbor, an old chorus girl now in her 80s, who told endless stories about Broadway in the 40s. Ironically enough, having fallen in love with the title, Barron soon found himself with a paralyzed vocal cord and lost his voice.  He became the one-armed juggler. So, following a medical hiatus, Barron shifted from the solo to the more grandiose approach, feeling a new-found sense of urgency.

While there is sadness in the lyrics, the music reverberates with catchy hooks and lifting melodies. Many are love songs, the best of which are the spare “Gonna (Need Somebody)” and “Till the Cows Come Home.” Others are cute adaptions of the well- known, like “The World Accordion to Garp.”  The album never lags as a contemplative song like “Raining Again” is followed by the heavy chording in “Saving Grace.”  Brass and orchestral backdrops color ‘Still a Beautiful World” and the closer “Too Young to Fade.”  

Barron admits that he can’t fit all his musical concepts into the Spin Doctors, and because he has no intentions of leaving that band, he needed another outlet to express himself. His commendable project is both expressive and visionary in its wide scope.

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