{"id":39868,"date":"2006-08-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-08-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/comin-back-again\/"},"modified":"2006-08-04T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-08-04T00:00:00","slug":"comin-back-again","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/comin-back-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Comin’ Back Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

So many independent artists present themselves with obvious strengths and weaknesses.\u00a0 The songs are good but the production lacks something.\u00a0 The guitarist is great but the drummer stinks.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The singer wows you but the arrangements all sound the same.\u00a0 Etc.<\/p>\n

And then there are those rare indie artists who seem to emerge fully formed from the ether with just about every little detail — hooks, vocals, arrangements, production — in place and ready to blow up your radio.\u00a0 Indie artists like Jake Stigers.<\/p>\n

The potential is obvious from the first frenetic, wah-wah\u2019d chords of the propulsive opener \u201cDo You Feel High?\u201d — a whack-your-forehead-and-say-\u201cDuh!\u201d first single if ever you\u2019ve heard one.\u00a0 The fat riffs ring, the chorus sticks in your head like epoxy, the vocals layer nicely on the bridge and you want to check your Billboard charts just to make sure this one isn\u2019t already there.\u00a0 Nope, not yet\u2026<\/p>\n

On the basis of that one song it might be tempting to write Stigers off as a talented but slightly lightweight pop-rock hit-slinger, but as this disc progresses he mixes things up nicely.\u00a0 \u201cAnother Negotiation\u201d adds grit, matching a Replacements sound with a snarly, fed-up lyric.\u00a0 In contrast, \u201cOnly Wanna Be With You\u201d mixes muted, dreamy guitars with ooey love lyrics in a Peter Frampton-meets-Semisonic pastiche whose rich tone also reminded me of indie fave Bryan Master.<\/p>\n

Next up is the simply fantabulous \u201cWe Don\u2019t Need Anybody,\u201d in which Stigers blends crunchy Jet-meets-Brendan Benson melodic rock with a little Southern sass in the vocals and stabbing riffs that would make Keith Richards grin.\u00a0 Stigers also wins music trivia bonus points here for quoting \u201cRockin\u2019 Pneumonia & The Boogie Woogie Flu,\u201d a hit for Huey \u201cPiano\u201d Smith in 1957 and again for Johnny Rivers in 1972.<\/p>\n

So for the title track you were maybe expecting more muscular power-pop?\u00a0 Well, \u201cComin\u2019 Back Again\u201d does have big guitars, but it\u2019s actually a pretty restrained and pleasantly bittersweet ballad. \u00a0From there the highlights include the mid-tempo thrum of \u201cDon\u2019t Know Where I Belong\u201d and the driving, authoritative rocker \u201cThat Ain\u2019t Livin\u2019.\u201d \u00a0<\/span>Also of note is the entertaining curveball \u201cMarlena,\u201d which finds Stigers transformed into a dusky-nightclub r&b singer, his falsetto going down smoother than a pitcher of cheap margaritas.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s so much surface appeal to Comin\u2019 Back Again<\/em> that it\u2019s easy to give Stigers a pass on lyrics that are maybe an eight out of ten — solid and often clever, just not super-duper transcendently insightful.\u00a0 In terms of sound and arrangements and riffs and vocals, though, singer-songwriter Stigers and co-producer\/guitarist Nunzio Signore hit a home run just about every time out here.\u00a0 \u201c\u201dDo You Feel High?\u201d has already gotten airplay on New York\u2019s famed Q104 FM, and what happens from there feels as inevitable as a catchy chorus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":28421,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7774],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-39868","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-jake-stigers","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39868","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39868"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}