Word: pecks
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Recalls Peck, "People who did [work hard] were called grinds, or 'greasy grinds." But gentlemen didn't have to work at all. They got C's and "those who were well-born went on to do well in life and have distinguished careers...
...since learned to go electric, and Bruce Cockburn and Matthew Sweet have inspired many aspiring young songwriters. Most new releases simply confirm the truism that there are a million bad songs waiting to be written, but actually a few good ones too. This truism is fulfilled on singer Danny Peck's new self-titled releases. Full of original songs, Danny Peck begins his album by sounding like Michael Penn imitating Peter Gabriel, and ends up sounding like Jeffrey Gaines imitating Sting. If this seems like a nonsensical collection of eclectic styles, you're right. The main problem is that Peck...
...Peck opens with a very pretty Gabriel-esque tune, "Lover." He sounds a bit like Pete, and breathes the lyrics with the same sense of urgency Many of the chord progressions and vocal shouts also sound like something from Gabriel's So. But add in some folksy guitar strums molded into a synth line, and the intensity loses out to a studio-induced banal sheen. This recurs on almost all of the tunes, for Peck's voice cannot seem to outsing the acoustic guitar and keyboard arrangements backing him. His voice tends to be too flat, lacking the depth that...
...clear what inspires Peck's musical eclecticism, and how he imagines it to all hold together. Adding a polished studio saxophone wail to a folk guitar song does nothing but bewilder the listener, as does a tune like "Strange Weather," with its hip jazz shimmy that sounds like it belongs on Sting's last album. Add in a trumpet solo (as Peck does on many tunes), a walking bass and sampled strings, and you have a very curious tune. It has the same value as the likes of buster Pointdexter or Thomas Dolby, minus the better arrangements, interesting voices...
...surest sign that Peck has little to say is evident in his tendency to repeat boring phrases over and over again in his tunes. On the banal folk-rock tune "Any Way I Can," he actually sings the words "Any Way I Can" 15 times in a row. Peck then sings, "Yes I pay my dues/get drunk and sing the blues/have nothing left to lose." It is obvious that Peck has not fully paid his dues yet, nor has he really played the blues. If he truly has nothing left to lose, then all of his talent has disappeared with...