Any time I’m listening to a disc from an independent or an
\nunsigned band, I try to give them as much leniency as possible and
\nnot come off as sounding like a crusty old stodger. (I don’t know
\nwhy I bother; chances are when my daughter is a teenager, her
\nfriends are going to think I am anyway.)<\/p>\n
Take Joey Shaker, for example. While I am not the biggest fan of
\ncontemporary Christian music, I kept listening to their album
\nMankind<\/i> to find just one more bright spot I might have
\nmissed. In the end, it worked, to a point.
\nMankind<\/i> does have some serious flaws, but this quartet does
\ndare to approach religion in songs by not hitting the listener over
\nthe head with the message.<\/p>\n
The group – vocalist Joe Santora, guitarist Sean Tuohy, bassist
\nPeter Zaage and drumer Dennis DeRado – have as much of a jazz
\ninfluence in their music as good ol’ rock and roll. They are just
\nas comfortable whipping out the Rolling Stones – as they do with
\ntheir cover of “Fingerprint File” at the end of the album – as they
\nare working on complex rhythms.<\/p>\n
\nMankind<\/i> seems to be a religious album that is willing to
\nmeet listeners half-way. Although the disc (at least my copy,
\nanyway) doesn’t come with lyrics, only about half of the songs seem
\nto have a directly religious message to them. And even there, with
\nrare exception, Joey Shaker doesn’t try to shove their dogma down
\nyour throat. This, frankly, is a welcome surprise; once I saw the
\ndedication in the liner notes, I was fully prepared for this to be
\na Sunday school lesson put to music. Even tracks like “I Daniel”,
\nwhich I found to be more religious than secular, were
\nenjoyable.<\/p>\n
\nMankind<\/i>, however, shows that Joey Shaker has three main
\nareas they have to work on. First, Santora is not the strongest
\nlead singer in the business – and something tells me that he would
\nagree with me in this regard. Granted, the more you listen to the
\ndisc, the more Santora seems to fit with the music, but it’s a long
\ntime before you get accustomed to his hoarse delivery. Second, Joey
\nShaker needs to add harmony vocals to the mix; when background
\nvocals are added to the mix, staying exactly in tune with the main
\nmelody leaves things sounding very flat.<\/p>\n
Third – and this is the biggest point of contention I have – is
\nthat much more musical development needs to take place with this
\nband. For well over half the album, the instrument I found myself
\nconnecting with most was the bass guitar, and while Zaage’s playing
\nis good, I should have found myself focusing in on the guitar.
\nTuohy is a decent jazz riff player, but overall, the guitar lacks
\nbite. Possibly adding a second guitarist to handle rhythm chores –
\nfreeing Tuohy up to trip the jazz strings fantastic.<\/p>\n
While
\nMankind<\/i> showcases a band in development, tracks like
\n“Carousel,” “Shifty Eyes” and “Take It Or Leave It” suggest that
\nJoey Shaker has potential. While the band has some big obstacles to
\novercome, something tells me they can do it. Until that happens,
\nthough,
\nMankind<\/i> is a portrait of a band in flux – but the more you
\nlisten to it, the clearer the picture becomes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27581,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7390],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-38956","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-joey-shaker","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38956","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38956"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}