The Left Banke
Airborne - Omnivore Recordings - 2024 (2001)
Tracks:1. Airborne / 2. I’m in Love / 3. Going Down to Mexico / 4. All the Pain / All the Wonder / 5. Buddy Steve / 6. Let Me Take you Down to Florida / 7. 5 o’clock / 8. Until the End / 9. How Many Times / 10. Meet me in the Moonlight / 11. I Don’t Know / 12. High Flyer / 13. Going Down to Mexico
Comments:
"Airbone" was the very last attempt by Michael Brown, Steve Martin and Tom Finn to revive The Left Banke. The beginning of the tracks that make up "High Flyer" happened already in 2001, when Michael Brown started writing new songs for The Left Banke. In 2022, when all the most important members of the group had passed away, an EP "High Flyer" with six tracks was released. Later, seven more tracks were added and it was all released in October 2023 as the album "Airborne".
Musically, the music is not surprisingly more reminiscent of the 1978 album "Strangers on a Train" than of early Left Banke from the 1960s. It is clearly a strength that Michael Brown is back as composer. Like Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, Brown was the musical genius who created the group's profile in the studio while the desire to tour and perform was limited.
Some of the cuts here are clearly not quite finished, and the group would probably have liked to work on them further before release. Nevertheless, "Airborne" appears as a worthy punctuation from a very special group, which in the 1960s helped to define the genre "baroque rock"
”. "Until the End", "High Flyer" and "Airborne" are all very nice tracks with nice vocals from Steve Martin, with Michael Brown on keyboards, Tom Finn on bass and supported by Jimmy McAllister and John Ihle on guitar and drums respectively.
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