When I was in college, I went through a phase where I listened
\nto almost nothing but theBeatles and Simon & Garfunkel. I
\nsuppose this would not be unusual if my college days were in the
\n60’s, but I went to college in the 80’s. Singer\/songwriter Jim
\nBoggia, who appears to be younger than me, seems to have gone
\nthrough the same phase, and if you include The Beach Boys, Todd
\nRundgren, and Cat Stevens, you have a good chunk of the influences
\nthat make up his new CD,
\nFidelity Is The Enemy<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Boggia plays up the nostalgia element by dividing up the track
\nlisting on the CD into two sides, including track 7, which is a
\nsnippet asking the listener to turn the record over. Also the CD
\ncover is a young boy listening to a portable record player, while
\nthe back cover shows Boggia doing the same, with a bunch of 45’s
\nscattered all over the table. However, while the music on
\nFidelity Is The Enemy<\/i> is a tribute to the pop, folk, and
\nrock of an earlier era, Boggia proves there are still new wrinkles
\nto this sound.<\/p>\n
The CD starts off with “So Full”, a heartfelt, acoustic-oriented
\nsong that is folk-pop perfection. But wait: fasten your seatbelts
\nbecause the second track, “Toy Boat,” jars the listener and is the
\none concession to modern music with an alternative rock sounding
\nchorus in what seems to be slight parody as Boggia sings with
\nmodern day angst, “Say Toy Boat\/Fast Three Times\/In A Row\/I’m
\nTongue Tied”.<\/p>\n
While that may be a rocky beginning, the rest of
\nFidelity Is The Enemy<\/i> deftly balances between soulfulness
\nand technique, much like fellow Pennsylvanian Todd Rundgren did on
\nhis classic
\nSomething\/Anything<\/i>. On the technique side, you have the
\nbouncy “Bubblegum 45’s”, which surely would have been a hit at a
\ntime when songs became popular because of their catchy melodies.
\nHis Rundgrenesque sense of humor shows up on the bonus track which
\nI will call “Humbug” and literally sounds like it could be part of
\nthe
\nHow The Grinch Stole Christmas<\/i> soundtrack right down to the
\n“You’re A Mean Man, Mr. Grinch” type vocals.<\/p>\n
But the most ambitious track is “Peter Pan”, an unapologetically
\npsychedelic track that celebrates the playful spirit of the title
\ncharacter. The instruments played on this track include a
\nbasketball, a bicycle bell, an indian drum, a slinky, toy piano and
\nflute, and air organ, to create the woozy sound that is topped off
\nwith a sample from the Beatles instrumental, “Flying”.<\/p>\n
OK, that takes care of the Beatles, next comes Simon &
\nGarfunkel with the pretty folk ballad, “Winter” where Boggia sings
\nboth parts of the harmony, in different pitches, and steals the
\nguitar part from “Homeward Bound”. The Beach Boys? Well, this is
\nwhere I am a bit peeved. I saw on the track list “Don’t Talk (Put
\nYour Head On My Shoulders)” from
\nPet Sounds<\/i> , but playing the CD, Boggia only gives us twenty
\nseconds of the harmony part. Bummer.<\/p>\n
Playing name that tune is enough to make me smile, but what puts<\/p>\n
Fidelity Is The Enemy<\/i> over the top for me is Boggia’s
\nability to write strong songs. The lost love ballad “Black And
\nBlue” will break your heart, but there is a sardonic wit at work
\nhere to keep the song from becoming maudlin. Boggia also hits the
\nmark in the soulfulness department with “Several Thousand” and
\n“That, For Me, Is You” that show the sunny side of love. Not only
\nare they well-written songs, but Boggia has the vocals to deliver
\nthem. I would say his voice resembles a more soulful, less whiney
\nDon Henley.<\/p>\n
If those songs show Boggia’s sweetness, he also displays a sour
\nside with “O\/P”, which I presume stands for Optimist\/Pessimist
\nbecause he tells whoever to stop whining and bitching like a
\npessimist and be an optimist . There’s also the playful, slightly
\nbossa nova track, “Nothing Wrong With Me”, which defiantly
\nproclaims that the relationship ended because of you, not me.<\/p>\n
\nFidelity Is The Enemy<\/i> is a tour-de-force, and quite an
\namazing CD for a debut. Heck, it’s quite an amazing CD, period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":26087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6693],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-37300","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-jim-boggia","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37300"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37300"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}