Prior to the release of 2024's
Wiggle Your Fingers
,
Brent Rademaker
, the leader and sole constant member of
GospelbeacH
, announced it would be the group's final album, and when an artist declares in advance that their next release is their swan song, it tends to invite questions from the listener. Is
going to be some grand summation of
's ten years of making music, or is this just going to be their (or his) last batch of tunes?
doesn't play like
Rademaker
's last word on his obsession with California's musical history from the late '60s onward, but the lyrics do reflect a certain world-weariness, as if he's had enough of writing in the present tense, even as he lives in the musical past. "York Blvd." is a cynical depiction of wealthy hipsters at play, "The Dropouts (Parts One and Two)" is a crunchy rocker about young people who seem to imagine themselves more rebellious than they truly are, and "It's Too Late (Kellie's Version)" is a sweetly rueful meditation on a failed relationship that seems to reflect an ennui about the larger world. If sixtysomething
isn't quite overjoyed with life in the 21st century, you can't blame him, and it hasn't adversely impacted his craft.
' ten songs are canny and beautifully executed pastiches of West Coast soft rock, sunshine pop, jangle pop, and polished psychedelia, and he's even moved forward enough to add a dash of new wave to the formula, as evidenced in the slightly angular keyboards on "Second Chance" and the power-pop crunch of "The Dropouts." If you fear
may be losing his sense of humor, the title "You're the Only One (Frozen Burrito #2)" should reassure you.
Jon Niemann
produced the album as well as playing keyboards, and he's given the material all the sheen it needs without going overboard, as well as rounding up an outstanding array of musicians to bring
's vision to life. (There are few other albums that would feature former
Jackson Browne
bassist
Bob Glaub
and former
Generation X
guitarist
Derwood Andrews
, and make savvy use of them both.) There's no telling if
will truly be the final
album or if
was just feeling grumpy late in the production process. Either way, the man is a great songwriter with a rare gift for making his material work in the recording studio, and when he sings "There's nothing quite like a song/That makes you want to play it all night long" in "The End," well, he knows how to make songs that do just that, and there are a bunch of them on
. ~ Mark Deming