{"id":4146,"date":"2017-07-31T20:00:29","date_gmt":"2017-07-31T20:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/?p=4146"},"modified":"2017-08-05T00:28:48","modified_gmt":"2017-08-05T00:28:48","slug":"john-moreland-big-bad-luv-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/2017\/07\/31\/john-moreland-big-bad-luv-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"John Moreland- Big Bad Luv- CD Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by James Killen<\/p>\n

\"Bigbadluv\"<\/a>With \u201cBig bad Luv\u201dJohn Moreland solidifies his status of the Oklahoma bard of relationship frustration. His lyrics are as insightful and telling as ever, but he has expanded his horizons musically, adding a bluesier feel to this production with more slide guitar and organ and just a touch of harmonica. This is John\u2019s fourth album and is every bit as poetically strong if not stronger than any that he has done before.<\/p>\n

He kicks off the record with an acoustic rocker, \u201cSalislaw Blue\u201d, full of slide guitar, Wurlitzer organ and harmonica flourishes. He slows it down a bit on \u201cOld Wounds\u201d, calling love a violent word with a plaintive dobro theme.<\/p>\n

Moreland describes the ultimate love frustration with the ironically light sounding \u201cEvery Kind of Wrong\u201d which features a fine southern rock lead and ends with the final stanza, \u201cYou\u2019ve been falling short of golden, and I\u2019ve been every kind of wrong. I guess I\u2019m dying to let you ruin me and you\u2019ve been sinking all year long. So if that chariot their driving don\u2019t swing low enough for us, just paint two crosses on my eyelids and point me out of touch.\u201d If that doesn\u2019t get to the root of the matter, I don\u2019t know a poet that could.<\/p>\n

\u201cLove is not an Answer\u201d strolls through an environment of piano and organ bearing a sincere commitment of love along with a subdued guitar lead. John, does an Oklahoma Springsteen-style masterpiece with \u201cLies I Chose to Believe\u201d to a gorgeous piano theme. \u201cAmen, So be It\u201d picks up the tempo again with a bluesy song of resignation.<\/p>\n

\"Johnmoreland\"<\/a>In a solo vocal and guitar composition, Moreland, visits the world of loss and pressing on, with \u201cNo Glory in Regret\u201d, a straight ahead folk composition. Bringing the listener up from introspection, John follows \u00a0with the swamp rocker, \u201cAin\u2019t We Gold\u201d, featuring reverb guitar and harmonica. The mood drops lower again with the country dobro anthem, \u201cSlow Down Easy\u201d stating \u201cI\u2019ve been hauling a heavy soul\u201d and asking for commitment from his love interest in the most vulnerable way.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt Don\u2019t Suit Me (Like Before)\u201d dares to enter the country vernacular, complete with pedal steel and country telecaster riffs. \u201cLatchkey Kid\u201d ends this series of songs with a story of regret in the middle of life, singing \u201cDon\u2019t let me die in California while I\u2019m dragging all these rivers in my mind\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBig Bad Luv\u201d is a step forward for John Moreland. It\u2019s an expansion on his musical persona and a step further outside the box lyrically for a great social observer and poet. Yeah, you want to listen to this one and listen carefully,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by James Killen With \u201cBig bad Luv\u201dJohn Moreland solidifies his status of the Oklahoma bard of relationship frustration. His lyrics are as insightful and telling as ever, but he has expanded his horizons musically, adding a bluesier feel to this production with more slide guitar and organ and just a touch of harmonica. This… <\/p>\n

Read More<\/i><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cdreviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4146"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4150,"href":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4146\/revisions\/4150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}