You can hear the songs mentioned in the Blake Morgan: Diamonds in the Dark CD review below on AMG.
“Water Water Everywhere” opens with a drifting acoustic guitar, perhaps an other-worldly take on Yoko Ono’s classic “We’re All Water.,” a hint that Blake Morgan’s Diamonds in the Dark album is rich with songwriter introspection, as with 70s artists Seals & Crofts and Al Stewart, this has Bardorf & Rodney kind of vocals gliding over the chords.
“I Can Hear You Say” (hear on YouTube) is another offbeat 70’s throwback out of the Todd Rundgren Something/Anything world, backing vocals spaced nicely IN the back, where they belong and work here. Retarding chords crawling across the musical scale lines, even intruding on the G- clef to push the envelope a bit, a rock song searching for the jazz that inspired it.
“Forgetting to Remember You” is an engaging Kenny Rankin-styled songwriter/singer deep look inside, indulging in Paul McCartney musical phrasings as a frosting on the top. The cover photo to the CD has Morgan in a “the Thinker” profile, dark hues over a vintage LP cover shot down to CD size, including the term “Sterophonic” on the bottom of the sleeve.
“Best Bad Idea” (hear on YouTube) includes a lyrical nod to Little Feat and many musical nods to Emmit Rhodes, taking Foreigner’s “Cold As Ice” and turning it folk/pop – would fit nicely on one of latter-day superb solo discs by Joey Molland (of Badfinger.) “Black Into Blue” takes the heavier vibes of Abbey Road focuses on Beatle backing vocals for its sustenance. One of the better titles on this fine disc.
“Haunt Me” keeps the pop cycle revolving in a satisfactory way bringing us to “Don’t Want To Let You Go.” Back in time Elliot Murphy’s Diamonds by the Yards lp was an intriguing musical statement. Here the title of Blake Morgan’s CD, Diamonds in the Dark, is referenced in “Don’t Want To Let You Go” – the theme drawn in abstract, and in a sincere and heartfelt way. There is no denying the McCartney-ism here, a song that would fit nicely on Magical Mystery Tour or McCartney 1 (solo.)
With “We Left Off” the mellow balladeer concept stays on track, the tunes getting better as the album progresses, and this is one of the best. It’s got a great hook with elegant, cascading guitar lines enveloping the words nicely.
“So Scared and Happy” concludes the ten tracks, bringing us back to the “Julia” days of the Beatles (White Album), a nice finish to a good collection from the owner of the ECR Music Group out of New York City.
Blake Morgan sings McCartney’s Maybe I’m Amazed:
Joe Viglione is the Chief Film Critic at TMRZoo.com. He has written thousands of reviews and biographies for AllMovie.com, Allmusic.com, Gatehouse Media, Al Aronowitz’s The Blacklisted Journal, and a variety of other media outlets. Joe also produces and hosts Visual Radio, a seventeen year old variety show on cable TV which has interviewed Jodie Foster, director/screenwriter David Koepp, Michael Moore, John Cena, comics/actors Margaret Cho, Gilbert Gottfried, Gallagher, musicians Mark Farner and Don Brewer of Grand Funk Railroad, Ian Hunter of Mott The Hoople, Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, Felix Cavaliere of The Rascals, political commentator Bill Press and hundreds of other personalities.
