Paul Cafcae is a Toronto based musician who recently released Sophisticated. The album blends a number of like minded genres like rock, blues and pop. One of the things that stood out to me was the aesthetics. The recordings have a vintage, old tape quality to them. I personally can’t stand the sound of overproduced music and this has a quality to it that feels like musicians playing in a room.
“She's My Town” starts off the album and is one of the more lively songs. The organ and guitar play off each other in ways that come close to sounding like reggae on the verse and the walking bass line on the chorus really changes the energy of the song. The title track “Sophisticated” is next and is a piano led ballad. Elton John came to mind on this song. I liked Cafcae's voice which had some melancholy on it. The song opens up as it progresses tremolo tinged guitar which makes the emotion shift from melancholy to hopeful. “Outlandish Graces” is another track covered in melancholy. The main elements here are a warm organ and bluesy guitar. It’s a pretty gorgeous blend of instrumentation. The drums really sounded great as well because you could hear the room and the person playing it. “Wonderful Day” is a dynamic song. The song begins rather subdued with the hum of the organ controlling the emotion of the song. Once the song reaches the chorus the most straightforward rock on the album thus far is heard. “Single Flower in Her Hair” was almost straight ’50s pop with a dash of surf rock. The song is unequivocally one of the catchiest if not the catchiest song in the batch. “Three Days” goes back into ballad territory that sounds somewhere between Willie Nelson and more ’50s pop. “Bury Me Not” is a highlight. I really love the instrumentation. There is a nice layer of spaghetti western on this song. Last up is “The Last Love Song” which ends the album with optimism and energy. Sophisticated was a good album from beginning to end. The blend of a lot of older genres combined with the production was a winning combination. Recommended.
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