Outta My Mind<\/i><\/a>. At the time I commented on how much his music reminded me of early Rob Thomas\/Matchbox 20, and that impression carries over here; the sound once again is passionate, guitar-centric alt-rock full of urgent vocals and ringing riffs. Most importantly, as you may have guessed by now, he sings every note like he means it.<\/p>\nOpener \u201cGone For Good\u201d is a big, echoey, escape-from-our-troubles road song with a singalong chorus over a precisely modulated meshing of reverbed guitar and resonant organ; it\u2019s easy to imagine this one stirring up an arena crowd. Hunter\u2019s pleasantly rough-edged vocals convey urgency and angst as he repeats \u201cI can\u2019t sleep alone\u201d over and over at the bridge, yet this one still clocks in at a concise, punchy 3:05.<\/p>\n
Next up, title track \u201cAfterglow\u201d offers a nice change of pace, opening over acoustic guitar and Hammond and doing a steady build into its billowing choruses. The craft Hunter and producer Dave Bechtel put into these tunes shows up here in little touches like the way the key line \u201cYou\u2019re my afterglow\u201d is followed immediately by electric guitar chords that feel<\/i> like an afterglow, all golden and burnished and resonant. (And if the line \u201cIt\u2019s three o\u2019clock in the morning\u201d triggers an instant flashback to Matchbox 20\u2019s \u201c3 AM,\u201d well, what\u2019re you gonna do? That\u2019s an excellent song too\u2026)\u00a0 <\/p>\n
\u201cIn The Middle\u201d is a terrific, surging melodic rocker in the Counting Crows vein, whose tasty electric riff and urgent vocals drive the song at such a clip that you barely notice him trying to force \u201cinfinite\u201d to rhyme with \u201cright.\u201d Mid-tempo \u201cseize the moment\u201d anthem \u201cDitto Baby\u201d opens in a quieter setting but develops steadily, framing Hunter\u2019s earnest vocals with piano, Hammond and guitars.<\/p>\n
Closer \u201cCable\u201d personifies the tension at the core of much of Hunter\u2019s music with the chorus \u201cI\u2019m a cable \/ I\u2019ll be alright if I can just hold on.\u201d It\u2019s a cut that achieves lift-off riding a wave of propulsive rhythm guitar and Hammond, with Hunter\u2019s urgent vocals driving and pushing to the very end. <\/p>\n
Compliments are definitely due to producer Bechtel, who gives these five tunes a nice clear shine without losing the organic feel at their core; it\u2019s a straight-up production approach that suits these songs well. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Afterglow<\/i> finds Hunter taking more chances lyrically than on Outta My Mind<\/i>, and while not every idea is a home run, pushing the envelope is almost always better than playing it safe. At the same time, it\u2019s hard not to notice that Outta My Mind<\/i> plus Afterglow<\/i> might equal a pretty strong album; maybe next time? For now, Robert Hunter has a pair of potent EPs under his belt, full of sharp tunes performed with skill, integrity and\u2014most important of all\u2014genuine commitment and passion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":33009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9901],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-44791","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-robert-hunter","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44791","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=44791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44791"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}