This is a good move for Mays, giving us a different way to
appreciate him. He's taken his entire album from 2017 ("Once Upon...")
and remade it as an acoustic record. Best known for rocking out, Mays
the singer-songwriter sometimes gets lost in the electricity. He'll
never be mistaken for Leonard Cohen, but there's lots to appreciate in
his plainspoken lyrics, much of it self-examining, and wise through
experience.
This is pretty bare bones, although
not just acoustic or demo-level. Mays is joined by Aaron Goldstein on
pedal steel for a few cuts, Anthony Carone on piano for a couple more,
and backing vocalists on most of them, plus hand-and-foot-made
percussion. The songs, some of his career best, lose none of the
tunefulness, and Mays has a compelling voice that draws us in for a
closer listen. Now with the emphasis on the words, we can appreciate a
track like Sentimental Sins more, trying to capture love's intensity he
tells us "You gotta chase that teenage feeling back to how it used to
be." Songs that sound like a party on the electric album are revealed as
more conflicted, like Howl At The Night: "I’m at this party they’re all talking too much/I
should be home with the wife and two kids in my clutches." The only
thing wrong with this idea is that it will now be a struggle to decide
which version to play.
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