2023-08-07 16:08:12
Like countless other musicians who were used to non-stop touring, Nils Lofgren was driven into the studio by the corona pandemic. His livelihood draws Mountains partly noticeable from this idleness.
For the listener, it may at first seem like a hardly essential occupational therapy for which his technical skills are damn unspectacular this time in a coordinate system E Street Band, Crazy Horse and Ringo Starr’s all-star troupe of veteran acting, like Mountains because without burning under the fingernails relaxed and unexcited sounds a bit like Willie Nelson when Lofgren (who handles a good part of the instrumental side alone) joins forces with bassists Kevin McCormick and Ron Carter, drummers Andy Newmark and Tim Biery, percussionist Luis Conte and Harp player Christine Vivona as the core backup in the mellow (Grand)Dad Rock which devotes to Country, Americana and Heartland, where organs and guitars howl over relaxed rhythms fallen out of time.
In this respect, the guest list seems primarily to be Mountains exciting that next to that Howard Gospel Chor or Cindy Mizelle can also offer much more prominent (albeit absolutely subversive) Ringo Starr as well as harmony vocals by David Crosby and Neil Young (and in fact the arrangements on them overshadow the simplistic core of the songs even overloaded!), but in fact it is the dignified and competently functioning sovereignty of the songwriting, which ultimately convinces.
Better than the standard bluesy rockers (such as the catchy tune Ain’t the Truth Enough, who keeps repeating his simple, catchy hook in the chorus; the one that shimmered a bit more oppressively into the 80s Only Ticket Out, in which Lofgren seems to be trying a little vocally in an exemplary manner; the crisper and snappier one Won’t Cry No More (for Charlie Watts) or the almost funky one straying over the jazzy rumbling rhythm section I Remember Her Smile) but the soft, balladesque numbers succeed.
If Lofgren the boss in the soulful highlight Back in Your Arms (but that also shows how much room for improvement there is with Lofgren’s own songs) really heartwarmingly emotional covers, Nothin’s Easy (for Amy) pleasingly sentimental in simple beauty, Dream Killer as well as the quietly cruising Only Your Smile or the forgiving indulgence at the piano Angel Blues goes through pleasantly without really leaving any lasting impressions along solid melodies, then that’s just good.
Finally we talk Mountains still of an ubiquitous class that articulates something timeless above average – and that’s why it gets the rounding up between the dots.
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