Cries That Are Never Heard
Change of Pace
Independent
2000
10 tracks
Written, produced, and performed by a twenty-one year old, Cries That Are Never Heard is an impressive debut release. Justin Brake's music demonstrates a maturity and consistency often not found in the work of artists many years his senior. This release is the product of a single mind, but it goes far beyond the limitations of so-called singer-songwriter release. There are no guy-and-a-guitar songs here. With the help of his young band, Brake achieves a big sound with rich, full orchestration.
Brake is a skilled songwriter. He composes music that has the timeless, universal sense found in popular standards, with simple but never simplistic melodies and unified structure that stands up whatever the arrangement imposed on the music. His lyrics tell simple stories of life and love that recall the popular ballads of other Canadian artists like Dan Hill and Susan and Terry Jacks.
Brake is no prodigy. Before producing this release, he had done the work to learn his craft. Graduate of a respected college program in sound and music production, he has strong production skills at both the technical and the aesthetic levels. With his considerable skills in writing and arranging music, he has managed to pull together a first class product on what I assume had been a minimal budget.
It doesn't hurt that Brake also comes to this project with a strong singing voice and the ability to use it very effectively. Brake has a powerful pop rock voice that adapts equally well to a hard-driving fast rocker or a slow sensual love song. This is a voice that is supported and enhanced by the full arrangements on this release but would sound just as good accompanied by only guitar or piano.
At times the songs here feel as though Brake wants to use every tool he has, just because he can. The music tends toward being over-arranged and overproduced. In general, though, he seems to have kept a rein, if a loose rein, on this tendency so that while often powerful the sound is never overpowering.
Only one song on this release is an instrumental. The title song on Cries That Are Never Heard is an interesting if short set of sound effects and looped instrumental music. Opening with thunder crashes and bright guitar, the music rolls into a full-bodied, if standard, Seventies rock intro that after fifty seven seconds just ends without going anywhere. More a fragment than a tune, it's still an interesting piece to hear.
Some of the songs on this release bring to mind earlier songwriters like Cat Stevens or Joe South with their thoughtful lyrics and driven yet melodic music. In fact, all the songs on this release, while sharing a certain timeless quality with the rock classics, feel like they belong to an earlier era.
"For Your Eyes Only" is perhaps the most beautiful song in this set. Having not at all to do with James Bond, this is a finely crafted love song of the type one might expect from a Dan Hill or Luther Vandross. The vocal is sweet and tender, set against a lush string and keyboard laden instrumental bed. It's also perhaps the best song overall.
A broad description of the musical style presented here might place it in a range between "Free Bird" and "Radar Love" with a few stops in between, all having a certain Seventies sensibility without ever sounding old fashioned. "In My Mind" is the most obvious throwback to the Seventies, with a sound very reminiscent of Golden Earring in their prime. A classy rocker with a hard-driving beat, "In My Mind" has a fullness not always found in North American rock songs. In fact, much of Brake's sound seems to hark back to the big sound of European artists like Golden Earring and James Last.
For those who are interested in such things, this is an enhanced music CD with included information on Brake and the other musicians who have worked with him. This information can be viewed with the web browser in your computer.
If he continues in his musical career, whether as Change of Pace or under his own name, Justin Brake will be an artist worth watching. Based on what he has done with Cries That Are Never Heard, it will be interesting to see what directions Brake takes as he grows as an artist.
For more information on Justin Brake, you can visit the Change of Pace website.
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Review written: January 30, 2004
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