You\u2019d hope that emphatic props from a bevy of critics and the likes of best-selling author Stephen King might be enough to elevate Michael McDermott above the status of \u201cbest kept musical secret in all of Chicagoland\u201d\u2014but so far in his two-decades-plus career, you\u2019d be wrong. <\/p>\n
On his ninth studio album, McDermott\u2019s rich, expressive muse remains in full flight, even if there are hints of strain in the early going. It\u2019s not hard to understand why this Springsteen-Dylan-and-Waits acolyte, after years of slugging it out in clubs and living rooms, might try his hand at writing a radio single. On one level you want him to succeed\u2014lord knows the radio could use some smarter fare\u2014but it can feel a little forced coming from the pen of a writer whose songs unfold like musical novellas. The guilty parties are the leadoff title track, with its wraparound, singalong chorus, and \u201cThe Prettiest Girl In the World,\u201d an earnest folk-pop number that recalls some of Springsteen\u2019s more commercial recordings (specifically, some of the radio-friendly numbers he pulled out of the vault for Tracks<\/i>). Of course, being McDermott compositions, both offer an uncommon depth and, interestingly, both bear some sonic resemblance to Shawn Mullins\u2019 \u201cLullaby,\u201d a fluke hit by another thoughtful singer-songwriter.<\/p>\n
McDermott\u2019s gift shines out again and again in memorable lines like \u201cShame is a language I\u2019ve always understood \/ Fear is a doorway made of rotten wood\u201d in \u201cLet It Go\u201d; the man is nothing if not a craftsman. The literary allusions become more overt on the suitably dreamy-yet-driving \u201cDreams About Trains,\u201d which manages to quote Robert Frost not once, but twice. <\/p>\n
For this listener, the heart of Hit Me Back<\/i> lies in the three songs that span the second quarter of this 14-track outing. \u201cI Know A Place\u2026\u201d is a smart, moving, sincere, and occasionally profound story-song whose essence reveals itself in a single bulls eye of a line: \u201cBut sometimes you need the darkness in order to ever see the light.\u201d \u201cEver After\u201d follows, a richly elegiac number that builds from a piano-driven opening with a bit of a David Gray feel into a bold, heavy guitar crescendo. Completing the trilogy, the anthemic \u201cScars From Another Life\u201d narrates a turning point, performing a deeply emotional exorcism of past troubles. It\u2019s a gorgeous, heartfelt number that probably doesn\u2019t need the extra \u201csell\u201d provided by the strings near the end\u2014all the impact the song needs is already there in McDermott\u2019s words and guitar.<\/p>\n
The second half of this disc is less compelling, but nonetheless full of strong moments like the clever chorus to \u201cShe\u2019s Gonna Kill Me\u201d and the regretful melodicism of \u201cIs There A Kiss Left On Your Lips.\u201d Showing his range once again, McDermott pulls off both an acoustic blues that feels plucked fresh from the Delta (\u201cA Deal With The Devil\u201d), and a very pretty country-folk number (\u201cWhere The River Meets The Sea\u201d). And then there\u2019s the closing track, a sweet love song to a country: \u201cItaly.\u201d (I guess I can share her with you, Michael\u2026)<\/p>\n
Cut in eight days and produced and mixed by U2 engineer CJ Ericksson, Hit Me Back<\/i> has a bit of a blurry, Brendan O\u2019Brien-ish feel in places, which works well enough, but which I didn\u2019t find as appealing as the rawer, more organic sound of his previous album Hey La Hey<\/i>. Nits aside, though, Hit Me Back<\/i> is yet another powerful, memorable effort from the exceptionally talented Michael McDermott. Do yourself a favor: check it out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":31199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6437],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-42891","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-michael-mcdermott","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42891","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=42891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42891"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}