phil madeira open heart

Phil Madeira (from the album Open Heart available on Mercyland Recordings)  (by Bryant Liggett) 
Phil Madeira is laid back and cool. Relaxed when crooning out a lonely ballad, chill when zipping through a mid-tempo Jazz cut. These sounds and more can be found on his latest release Open Heart, a record where Phil Madeira can toss in Blues or light piano Rock, both delivered with groove and style. Open Heart open with a New Orleans inspired ballad, “Requiem for a Dream” slowly marching along finding an ‘open heart was the scene of a crime’. The slow ones on the album aim for pulling at the heartstrings. “Rock on Your Shore” doubles as an end of the night soundtrack, the words support for working up the nerve to ask for a dance or as a plea of forgiveness while “Remember Me” is a longing love song with slow and soulful horns joined by lush harmonies.
The zippier numbers of Open Heart are what makes the album burn. “The Likes of Me” find Phil Madeira’s vocals coming as spoken word with crisp, grooving horns and cutting guitar riffs pushing the song forward. “A Problem Like You” has the rhythms a subtle bounce as Phil Madeira sings of ‘learning to live with a problem like you’, finding the you is ‘the habit I wouldn’t want to break’. Clever lyrical gems are stocked on Open Heart as is the whole concept of love. Found on on every song, the theme is summed up in the lyrically lonely “When You Ain’t Got Love”. The cut where Phil Madeira offers trading your freedom and your ‘TV dinner in the microwave’ to wear someone else’s problem and have them be yours. Phil Madeira drops names and styles in the album closer “Monk” from Nina Simone to Carter Stanley, elevator music to high-brow, but all he wants to do is ‘put on some Monk and get lost in time’. (by Bryant Liggett)
 
Listen and buy the music of Phil Madeira from AMAZON
 
Head to the Phil Madeira website for more information
 
 

 

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