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Topic: New review
See further down for release data and brief background, here's Aaron's review:
Chris Ducey: I Am A Rock (Krios, c1977)
This tax scam release is by the real Chris Ducey, the guy who was supposed to record what ended up being the Chris Lucey album. It's a well-produced set of 70s pop (including orchestration), sounding like it was intended to be a major label record. It's a far cry from his soulful DUCE OF HEARTS album (from 1975), and his voice here is a whole register higher than it is there. Tax scam labels have been known to pull all kinds of tricks, but I do think it's him, as his work with Penny Arkade sounds reasonably similar to this, if quite a bit less sappy. This evidences definite songcraft and has several catchy songs, but even when there's a lot of lead guitar (some with wah wah and fuzz) and some hip Latin rhythms, it's awfully sweet sounding, not miles away from fluffy bands like The Partridge Family. How much you'll like this will depend on your sweet tooth. I'm a big fan of power pop and even quality soft rock, but this stretches it a bit too far for my tastes. Based on the production and Ducey's singing (assuming it really is him), I'm guessing it was recorded around 1973 or so, if not earlier. There's no date on the record, but the tax scam time period is 1976-1977, so this probably sat in the vaults for a while. [AM]
