Aaron Lee Tasjan – Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan! (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 37:45 minutes | 460 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © New West Records
Every now and then an artist comes along who makes you remember why you started listening to albums in the first place: Aaron Lee Tasjan is that artist. With his wrecked cool, off-center charm, and restless creative dazzle, he makes music with conviction that has its roots in rock’s murky past, armed with an arsenal of songs that spill over with humor, intelligence, irony, personal vision and at times prophecy. An obsessive creative, Aaron Lee Tasjan writes pop songs with a twist, a little overdriven, far too honest at times. He updates the idea of androgyny but dispels the emotional and social ambiguity with lyrics that reflect his own geographic and artistic wanderings. You get the sense over Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan!’s 11 songs that the man who began the album is not the same man who completed it, transformed both by the experiences that inspired the songs and crafting them. This is not anxious music for anxious times, but rather music as an antidote for anxious times. It is the sound of the future arriving.
In a way, Aaron Lee Tasjan is the Tom Petty/Jeff Lyne connection of rock’n’roll. That is, a literary sort, fully steeped in 60s influences. In 2016, the album Silver Tears introduced a gifted artist with an impeccable work that navigated between contrary folk, country rock, sunny pop and soft rock. The album, by the Nashville-based Ohioan, was influenced by such tasteful people and experts in melody as Tom Petty, Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman, James Taylor, Eric Carmen’s Raspberries, Ric Ocasek’s Cars and Willie Nelson. A little piano here, some guitar arpeggios there and in particular, sweet and often irresistible choruses. Two years later, Karma for Cheap with its catchy melodies and bewitching guitars, represents more of a step towards the Beatles… More McCartney than Lennon, Tasjan is ploughing the Petty/Lyne furrow (think The Traveling Wilburys) again on Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan!. But now that the lad has developed some experience, his historic obsessions tend to fuel his creativity rather than hold it back. Above all, this 2021 offering sounds very 2021! With these even more careful, masterly compositions, Aaron Lee Tasjan has surpassed his previous albums. On Another Lonely Day, with its whiff of Elliott Smith, he brings his personal concerns up to date. An album with a classic feel, that never smells like mothballs or dust. Quite the opposite! – Marc Zisman
Tracklist:
1. Sunday Women (03:04)
2. Computer of Love (03:39)
3. Up All Night (03:05)
4. Another Lonely Day (04:03)
5. Don’t Overthink It (04:09)
6. Cartoon Music (03:03)
7. Feminine Walk (03:35)
8. Dada Bois (03:40)
9. Now You Know (04:19)
10. Not That Bad (03:05)
11. Got What I Wanted (02:03)
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