Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
We all arguably had that one parent who would describe the tangled clutter in our bedrooms as either disgusting untidiness or as Another Nice Mess, one that can be quickly dealt with, cleaned and categorised with an air of breeziness in their voice; as if a serene sense of cool had been injected into them from a source unknown.
Is it a mess though when easily placed into boxes and rubber stamped, easily identified, or just neatness for convenience’s sake? The sense of intimidation that comes from this process is overwhelming on the spirit, far better to be open-minded, to see the world in front of us as efficiently precise, that the picture before us is not meant to be trim and proper, but the result of beauty being sought, that the heart and soul are meant to be entangled in a drama as they seek out peace, and the thrill of what binds them.
Another Fine Mess is the harmony brought to life from the exquisite Curtis Eller’s American Circus and as the five piece act, Curtis Eller, Stacy Wolfson, Hugh Crumley, Steve Cowles, and Andy Lyth, combine the thoughts and presences of emotions so well and with absolute class and certainty, and with the addition of special guests in the form of Joseph Dejarnette, Rima Fand, Saffy Lyth, and Chris Walldorf all in the same rapid flow as their counterparts, what transpires is an album filled with compact order, the immaculate in the divine.
Across songs such as the openers True Love In The Exclusion Zone, Goddamn Loser, and Conscientious Objector, and beyond in Sonny Liston Told Us, Standard White Jesus, and Time Moves Slowly (For Lillian Leitzel) Curtis Eller not only makes the banjo become the face, the instrument of smart persuasion in a way that few could have imagined. It is a star of its own accord, a bold and ingenious measure undertaken by a master willing, imploring other on around it to be conscious of the enormity of success.
A sound of grace under pressure gives birth to the responsibility of tight, correct, passion, and in every way Curtis Eller’s American Circus meets the demand with verve and style.
Curtis Eller’s American Circus release Another Nice Mess on October 9th.
Ian D. Hall