Review Summary: Jacco Gardner's debut album is a startling blast from the past, presenting to us a concoction of influences, all blended into one neat little package.
You know that moment when you're listening to an album, and you hear some riff or beat or rhythm or some tiny miniscule detail that gives you a huge blast of nostalgia? Well listening to multi-instrumentalist Jacco Gardner's debut album
Cabinet of Curiosities is like a forty-one minute blast of nostalgia. Brimming with 60's psychedelic influences pulled straight from the likes of The Beatles,
Cabinet of Curiosities is sure to bring back memories of a time long long past.
The album is a wonderful fusion of baroque pop and psychedelia, and is backed by a whole slew of various instrumentation, most of which performed by Jacco himself; everything from your standard fare guitar and drums to organs and harpsichord, with Jacco's dreamy, almost nasally at times, voice soaring gently above it all. There are many moments throughout the duration of the album where one can't help but thinking to themselves "I
swear I've heard this somewhere before." That's what's so beautiful about
Cabinet of Curiosities. It gives you a sense of familiarity, while still remaining captivating and never losing steam. Everything feels so goddamned familiar, and yet still fresh and new.
Many many different styles and flavors are offered here. "Summer's Gone" is a song that reeks of The Beatles, "The Ballad of Little Jane" has a decidedly Pink Floyd vibe, and "Cabinet of Curiosities" is an instrumental piece that travels through several highs and lows and highlights Jacco's organ playing skills. Opener "Clear the Air" sets a gorgeous tone as being one of the better tracks on the album, neatly containing mainly of the various influences found in the albums duration. Frankly, it's a bit difficult to name off all the different 60's and 70's sounds that show up in this album. They're simply everywhere, in every nook and cranny, and far too many to try and count.
So if you've ever been a fan of Pink Floyd or the Beatles or any even remotely similar acts of the 60's and 70's,
Cabinet of Curiosities is sure to be a pleasant and all too familiar listen. Even if you aren't intimately familiar with these groups, you'd be hard pressed to make it through these twelve songs without feeling like you've heard it somewhere already. Jacco has done something truly great here by reiterating ideas done many times, but in a way that's still refreshing. And for that, he must be commended.
