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- Summary: The ninth solo album for the former punk rocker was produced by Tony Visconti.
- Record Label: Back Porch
- Genre(s): Rock, Pop, Alternative
- More Details and Credits »
Top Track
| Always a Friend | |
|---|---|
| Wasn't I always a friend to you? Wasn't I always a friend to you? Do you wanna be my friend? Do you wanna be my friend? Every once in a while honey... | See the rest of the song lyrics |
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Score distribution:
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Positive: 16 out of 16
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Mixed: 0 out of 16
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Negative: 0 out of 16
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Real Animal is an album about life--both as survival and as the faces and moments that fill our days on this Earth. How many artists could make two masterpieces in a row that are so different?
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For Escovedo fans that have followed the local star through the Nuns, Rank and File, the True Believers, and Buick MacKane, Real Animal bares teeth and soul in rock & roll payback.
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Even as the songs triangulate the nexus of Marc Bolan, Iggy Pop and Doug Sahm, the album never sounds beholden to rock history. It’s more of an autobiographical undertaking, as if Escovedo is taking stock of his life, his career and his record collection—which are all essentially the same thing. As a result, each song sounds like a new chapter in a larger story and Real Animal like a new installment in an ongoing epic.
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The particulars of Mr. Escovedo’s autobiography on this album — his wanderings to New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin--may not matter much to those not already following his music. But the songs also tell a larger story: of reckless youth and unrepentant maturity, of time’s ravages and insights.
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Leave it to him to fascinate even when he just wants to clear out a few closets and keep on smiling.
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It’s for the Pabst crowd, not the trendy crowd concerned about looking the part. It’s this honesty that permeates everything Escovedo does.
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Taken as a whole, Real Animal shows a man content with the life he has lived, even as the rest of us hope that his final statement is still some ways off.
Score distribution:
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Positive: 5 out of 5
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Mixed: 0 out of 5
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Negative: 0 out of 5
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AdamC.Jun 24, 2008
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BruceN.Oct 4, 2008
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DSJun 27, 2008This is a great album. It sounds like Southside Johnny, Springsteen, and Joe Strummer.
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TrabajadorS.Aug 28, 2008His best work yet--and two of his previous are firmly planted on my desert island list.
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JeffPJul 9, 2008
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