Product Description Intimate and personal, a perfect blend of orchestral sweep and glam rock swagger. A true masterpiece from one of the guiding lights of Americana. "Exploring the peaks and valleys of melody and rich arrangements, creating the most subtle, textured album of his career." - PITCHFORK Amazon.com Ripe with the enigmas of loss, love, and connections across great distances, Alejandro Escovedo's sixth solo album realizes the promise of his remarkable gifts as singer, songwriter, and arranger. On spiraling tiers of pedal steel, cellos, violins, and electric and acoustic guitars, his chamber-rock vision comes to full fruition. He's never made freer garage pop than "Castanets," never stirred a more sweeping lyricism than in "Don't Need You," and never laid bare more soul than in the heartbreaking "Follow You Down" (a ballad Escovedo often dedicates to Townes Van Zandt). Even more amazing are the pairing of "Wave" and "Rosalie," subtle dramas of the Mexican-American passage through separation and faith, and the swirling, aching "About This Love," which concludes "It's all about the way/We break, to love again." Escovedo has always sought a poetic fusing of sound and image; with A Man Under the Influence, that search is complete. --Roy Kasten Review Musically, Escovedo is his own genre, a folk-blues classicist with a gritty plaintive voice and an equal fondness for dirty boogie and spectral balladry. With this album, Escovedo's own pilgrimage out of the shadows continues with power and elegance. --David Fricke, Rolling StoneAlejandro Escovedo takes a song and makes it absolutely his own, and he swings easily from rocking numbers to slow songs played with elegant sadness. His versatility in things musical is a joy to hear and see. He's one of the best I know about, one of those songwriters whose words I never tire of. Wherever I go, people talk about him with awe. Even if he takes me someplace beyond lonely for a while, that s okay, because I know, like Alejandro, that hearts like ours were made to be broke. --Larry Brown, Men's JournalThe depth and breadth, the elegance and power of Escovedo s songwriting is realized like never before. From top to bottom this album has no weakness. Of the 2500 CDs that I will hear this year, I can say with absolute certainty that this will be the best. --The Leader Post See more
