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Reviewer: Craig Yerkes - The San Diego Troubadour (Originally published on CD Baby) Wild and inspiring trip through the musical looking glass **** "Soliloquy" will make even the savviest sonic traveler feel as though he or she has gone through the musical looking glass. After dissecting this disc (and Simeon Flick's more recent offering, "Indigo Child"), it has become clear to me that Mr. Flick dares to do what very few musicians do these days...he expects you to open your heart, turn your brain on and actually listen. The decision to put "Soliloquy" into your CD player is something like deciding to rent that wonderful, quirky and intelligently written independent film at the video store as opposed to a mindless Hollywood blockbuster. If you're not careful, listening to Simeon Flick might actually feed your soul, challenge your thinking or expose you to fresh musical ideas...consider yourself warned, o' passive, lazy and complacent listeners. The opening, title track contains lyrics that sound like a pre-battle blessing given by Merlin to King Arthur, set to music that sounds like an arpeggio contest between Andy Summers and Eddie Van Halen. A "Sting-esque", octave-jumping vocal on "Trey Downs" takes an extremely catchy acoustic rocker into fresh, exciting territory. "Book in the Wind" features brutally blunt, stingingly insightful, yet somehow sweet lyrics (about a lingering, battered and potentially doomed romance) and sets them against a beautifully restrained acoustic track and subtle vocal (which becomes not so subtle when the octaves jump UP in places you wouldn't expect). Buckle up for "Voyeur" and prepare to have your mind bent. This one reminded me of what would happen if Simon and Garfunkel sat down to write "For Emily Wherever I May Find Her, Part Two" and decided to co-write it with Elvis Costello. The mysterious, provocative lyrics and music perfectly prick the imagination and transport the listener into the world of the story. The beautiful, finger-picked guitar part is laden with the occasional kinky chord to make it all a mixed bag of romance, neurotic behavior, whimsy and something darker underneath it all. "I Went Away" is a slow, self-reflective groove that leaves the question of self discovery open ended rather than tie it up in a neat package and bow. This track takes a more realistic approach to soul searching/being true to oneself and the music captures the emotional arc of the lyrics spot on. Listen to how the bass notes, at certain points in "I Went Away", eerily move through the chord changes to increase the tension...way cool. "No Ordinary Days" is seriously like no other love song I have ever heard...maybe the closest thing is "Old Brown Shoe" by the Beatles. What could be more romantic than a song that promises "on our calendar there's no ordinary days" and proclaims "oh how good it could be, you and me in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G" and says it all in the musical context of a completely wacky, sometimes dissonant 5/4 groove that could possibly cause serious bodily injury (if someone tried to dance to it or sing it without proper protective gear) . The slide guitar/scat solo on this track is worth the entire price of the CD. This song is a muddathaf&*ka of biblical proportions...mind-blowing. Nothing is phoned in on "Soliloquy" and every track holds surprises for anyone smart enough to take the time to step into Simeon Flick's musical world...go ahead, step through the looking glass.
SIMEON
FLICK - Soliloquy Simeon Flick steps forth with an eight-song collection of exceptionally smart, well executed, and infectiously catchy pop tunes. The first thing he mentions in his credits is, "Soliloquy was spontaneously recorded with forgiving minimalism..." Well put. But wow! For a guy who became a singer-songwriter at a time in history when the planet is saturated with a gazillion singer-songwriters, Simeon Flick is one of the few with such distinction, it makes him one of the few flowers worth picking, by natural law, in the vast garden-meadows of music talent. I remeber introducing myself to Jason Mraz for the first time. He was still unknown at the time and starving like everybody else. I just shook his hand, introduced myself, and told him I've been trying to do what he does for about 20 years, and that he had "it." He looked at me funny when I told him, "You should be outta here by now. It shouldn't be long before the world knows you're big time." The music is different and not written for the attention of little girls. But I have the same thing to say to Flick: "Dude, you're outta here." "Trey Downs," the second track, took about five seconds for me to love it. It's a perfect hit. The whole CD is brilliant; however I don't have enough space to go on about each tune. Every single track is remarkable in its originality, range of material (it kicks Jason's ass in this department), chops, maturity in arrangement and production, and most important: serious mojo. |