Adam Arcuragi

Adam Arcuragi

(High Two)

Record Review by Amber Henson

To a large extent, I like writing reviews of bands I’ve never heard of before. With no experience with the band before I put the album in the CD player, I have no stigmas to go along with them. Often times, I listen to the CD before I read the press release—as was the case with Adam Arcuragi’s self-titled debut full-length. Although I hadn’t been really excited about writing this review before, the letter from Arcuragi that came with the press release made me feel like I was helping out a friend. In the letter, Arcuragi describes how the album came together—where he recorded, with whom, and why it took three years (a failed attempt to record in a church, etc.).

With this kind of album, it’s that extra personal backstory that helps the whole thing come together. After all, this album is one of many that have come out recently that feature a man with a nice voice singing songs that are sometimes haunting but always coming with a pleasant melody. That’s all great—but what makes these kinds of albums different from one another? It’s your own personal reaction to what music speaks to you—and I think Arcuragi’s music speaks to me. I like the fact that some of his songs sound like they were recorded on a porch—one of them actually was—and I like how on “1981” he starts the song, stops, recounts the lead up, and then starts again. And I like that “The Song the Singer Sings” has this lyric: “Because it’s beautiful, please bring your winter coat / As we run down through the light that the sun is shining off your mother’s backside.”

After all, it’s the little things that make us love. Accordingly, give this album some time if you want it to mean something to you.