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Reviewed by
Ben Krieger
When Brandon Wilde was still running around in his overalls on Brooklyn playgrounds, he already had Sgt.
Pepper engrained in his brain. With the exception of a few detours—most notably Radiohead Avenue—his new record,
Songs From the Deep Sleep, is a perfect summation of love, loss, regret and resolutions to carry on, all wrapped in a childhood
love for Paul McCartney. Wilde’s talent is seasoned, well executed, thoroughly enjoyable, and leagues above the lion’s
share of the Williamsburg music scene. I listened to this record for weeks in my apartment, and more recently on a road-trip
out to Ohio and on Thanksgiving Day while we were preparing our holiday dinner; it was perfect for all these occasions. I
might not be able to compose a perfectly convincing review for you, but in my heart I cannot recommend this CD more highly.
That is the easy part of the review.
The trickier part is to try and explain why this record works so well. On paper, it shouldn’t. There
is no lyrical abrasiveness, unexpected twists of artistic adventurism (outside of a brilliant use of key modulation and some
fantastic bridges), unusual instrumentation, quirky vocals...and in the past, I have made similar observations before subsequently
trashing a record. Being active in the music scene, I get a chance to meet and befriend many of the artists whose records
I review. “Putting your best self into your music” is a phrase that gets tossed around a lot, and my complaint
has always been that the qualities that artists choose to leave out of their work would often make it more interesting. Usually
I make an observation about what is missing in a collection because I know for a fact that choices were made during the recording
and sequencing process for purely commercial purposes. “Change that swear word.” “Leave this song off.”
“Put this song at the end of the CD so it won’t scare off the listener.” I hate decisions like that…they
should be made subconsciously as part of the songwriting process or they shouldn’t be made at all. If you write a song,
it (or a song like it) should be represented in the collection you present to the world.
No such sacrifices have been made with this record; it goes down like a good Beatles iMix because that is
who Brandon Wilde is. “You can do what you want to do today” is a line from the opening track and it lays the
groundwork for the rest of the record. Doing what you want to do is not as easy as it seems in the music industry. Songs From
the Deep Sleep works because Wilde hasn’t hidden anything on this project. See, he isn’t (generally) quirky. He
isn’t abrasive. He is an extremely talented sweetheart who loves the Beatles and knows how to make a fantastic CD. You
may never get to meet Wilde personally, but listening to his new collection of songs, you will get as pure a representation
of his soul as an artist can put on record. That, my friends, is a major achievement, and should help him win over a lot of
new fans.
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