This is a wonderful listen.
Put aside for a moment any preconceptions you might have of Mr. Cavaleri because this is something very different. If you love the story, love the solo records or love the bluster of Nat Col and the Kings then be prepared for something very different. ‘Miracles’ is an album that sounds incredibly personal and yet at the same time feels incredibly laid back and comfortable. It’s an album that feel like it is coming from a good place, a place of comfort and security, a place of confidence and strength.
I last met Mr. Cavaleri at Perth’s iconic Charles Hotel more than a few years ago when he played there with Nat Col and the Kings, who purveyed a kind of elemental Blues that just hit you in the right spot, and then they were gone and Nathan took a time out before returning to music in 2018 and feeding out a series of single tracks, almost testing the water, and now in 2023 comes ‘Miracles’ a full album that breaks new ground… it’s different.
Lyrically ‘Miracles’ is a journey, with themes of movement, travel and even life and death, all delivered with a certain vulnerability that belies a real need for honesty that is sometimes tongue-in-cheek and at others, elevated to make a point. It’s also teh most subtle album Nathan has conceived so far and that is the real winner here, an unapologetic walk on the lighter side where subtlety belies a real furnace of creativity.
The needle hits the groove with the laid back blues pop of ‘Querencia,’ accented with a touch of lilting blues guitar. It’s a metaphysical jumping off point that essentially sets out the ethos of the album – this is a return, this is a safe place to feel strong and feel free. It’s that very feeling that both makes this album so unpretentious and natural as well as so bold. ‘Querencia’ is also, as I joked with Nathan in our upcoming interview, a retirement village in Moe N.S.W.
The single ‘Broken Lines’ is very representative of the landscape here, mellow yet jaunty and taking the theme of travel, but it’s the stripped back title track ‘Miracles’ with the underlying threat of guitar chugging away before it bursts with an almost antique flavour, that really satisfies. It’s a bit trippy, with a nice sax break and beautifully crafted guitar solos. A definite highlight.
There’s all kinds of emotion in the mix too: ‘Gone To God’ is a sad song, slow and delicate, and ‘Cool Changes’ underlines that it’s OK not to know what to do. Another that immediately catches the ear is the bittersweet ‘Not With You’ that wonderfully underlines how we apportion meaning to moments n our life. There’s some great and very subtle guitar going on in there.
As a complete contract ‘Comfort Zones’ is friskier, funkier, almost T-Rexy. It’s horns accentuate that feel like a slowed down 70’s Glam stomp; before the fun vintage shuffle of the fuzzed-up funky ‘Man On Fire’. The album does this wonderfully well, echoing life, bursting into action for a while before easing back in the chair.
‘My Boys’ is a lullaby, and ‘Go Quietly’ subtle, soulful, and dreamlike; before another burst of energy hits – this time in the form of the brooding, dark blues riff, that seems to herald demons and insecurities, of ‘Dry Ice.’ We’re taken out by ‘When the Party is Over ‘ – a guitar led instrumental that ends where it all began, it’s a circular journey that builds and peaks, triumphant, processional to an almost crescendo that reverts back to the opening line. And there we have it. A beautiful album, a work of will, and something to cherish.
One you need to hear.
INTERVIEW NEXT WEEK
8 / 10
