Tuesday, December 20, 2016

REVIEW: Dan Rico - Endless Love (Maximum Pelt)

Taken at face value Dan Rico's latest full-length Endless Love (released by local label Maximum Pelt), is difficult to categorize.  Rico, one of Chicago's busiest and most prolific rock n' roll warriors, is one of those artists that resists being pinned down or boxed in...currently he is 1/3 of Chicago's art rock outfit EGO, lead guitarist for power pop riff rockers MAMA, the frontman of Prince tribute band Purple Pain, a producer/engineer and now a solo artist in his own right.  Its not surprising that the sounds on Endless Love are a synthesis of a wide variety of influences.  His vocal style croons, but sometimes shrieks, the rhythm track is loose one moment and the next tight, the production quality ping pongs between bleeding reverberation and dry compression, one song is punctuated, the next fluid.  At times I hear The Raspberries, Buzzcocks, Doris Troy, Magic Sam and Prince.  Still the LP feels completely seamless and there is somehow an undeniable consistency to these seemingly disparate approaches to the point that one is left proclaiming Endless Love sounds wholeheartedly Rico.  But if the charm of its diversity of styles doesn't get you the songs will.  This record is chalk full of so many bangers you won't be able to resist dropping the needle on this baby for a hot minute.  Get it on wax here.

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