Amore Del Tropico Mon. May 21st, 07

Easily the most listened to album on my recent trek across the country was Amore Del Tropico, by The Black Heart Procession. I got the album a week or so before I left on my trip, so that might partially explain why I listened to it at least once during everyday of driving.

The rhythms on this album are fantastic. Tropics of Love.mp3 is great example of this. Doesn’t it make you just want to get up and dance with some enchanting beauty in a café with a fireplace and a good wine? It does me. I quite like how the melody and rhythm are so closely tied together—it gives his voice a truly haunting tone, especially when he sings “Remember, remember…”

A Cry for Love.mp3 has a beat that, to me, is one of the signature beats of 1950s. But The Black Heart Procession don’t settle for a simple retro song, but add the haunting strings, which are pretty much throughout the entire album, and they toss in a few subtle horn flourishes for good measure. I love the backup singers—they way they’re used reminds me of how Ray Charles used “The Cookies” on Lonely Avenue and many other songs. Oh, the moaning, love weary voice in this song is wonderful. Especially with the opening lines, “Love…”

The drumming on Before the People.mp3 is of the addictive variety. I love the shuffling beat. This song does a lot with minimalism: drums, a repeating synth line, and a few notes of guitar. Of course there’s the melody & voice. I can’t enough of hearing him sing, “This is not my mind, this is not my mind,” which could possibly make this song a counterpart to the Pixies’ “Where is my mind?”

When this album (Amore Del Tropico) came out, some years ago, the critics panned it and said it was a disappointment. Their pronouncement didn’t fully deter me from checking it out sooner, but, since I was only marginally interested in the band at the time, they did influence me a bit. But this album is by no means a disappointment, and I think it might be my favorite album by the band.

technorati tags:The Black Heart Procession, Amore Del Tropico, mp3

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