Lars Nagel
Tomorrow Never Knows
Self Release
Punky, Punchy Urban Alt. Country With a New Wave Curve.
This review has come about after ‘closing the book’ on reviews for 2023, but out of courtesy I played a track on the radio show last week and loved it, as did a couple of listeners who got in touch asking for more info on Lars Nagel.
So the next day I played the album out of curiosity and here I am 4 days later, totally smitten. First and foremost I’m always going to lie an album when Track #1 starts with a “1-2-3-4!” and that’s how the Twang infused Folk Rock of Years Go By springs into life. There’s a raggedy, good-time feel as Nagel and band sound like they’ve arrived in the studio after an exhilarating gig and want to keep the vibe going.
There are far too many nods to the influences behind every song here; but at the end of the day Nagel wears them proudly and creates a ‘sound’ that is genuinely unlike anyone I can think of; but still fits in seamlessly to that urban Americana file that is so popular at the moment.
I guess that comes from Nagel’s voice and his clever and astute songwriting; which come together so well on the rustic Fools Way Home and You Will Never Change which somehow welds a Prog groove to a punchy Alt. Country song and was the song that I played on the radio.
It’ll probably wear thin eventually, but I love the studio chat that opens a few songs; giving them a personal and ‘Devil may care’ approach.
‘Write about what you know’ is the adage young songwriters work to; and Lars Nagel does just that with to very personal songs to and about his recently departed father; and even without knowing that ‘fact’ Old Photographs with its heartbreaking steel guitar interludes and Now That You’ve Left Me are deeply personal songs and bookend his life as a six year old immigrant’s first experience visiting America as a child then his father dying.
So It Goes isn’t a cover of The La’s classic single; but a dour and insightful song about the heartbreak addictions cause but are just taken for-granted these days and just part of every day life and it’s not by accident that it’s followed by the crackling radio intro to Gotta Move gives this pseudo-political observationist song an extra air of mystery, paranoia and urgency in a Post-Punk/New Wave fashion that I might have expected from Ryan Adams or Jesse Malin back in the day.
There’s very much a lot to like here; which brings me to my dilemma in choosing a Favourite Song. Johnny Was Right is a belter that deserves radio play; and will pique the interest of old Punk Rockers who are now America’s middle-class; as Nagel takes his inspiration from the Johnny Thunders song “You Can’t Put Your Arms Around a Memory” but gives his own song a full on Country-Punk makeover in the spirit of Jason and the Scorchers or Dan Baird’s Homemade Sin.
The other; and probably my actual Favourite also takes it’s title from another song I hold dear, but sounds nothing like Nagel’s desperately emotional Country-Folk ballad Love Don’t Live Here Anymore; and it’s a song that I’m sure will be heard and revered in absolute silence when played live.
Normally I don’t take in everything on a Press Release; but Lars Nagel’s story has really caught my attention; not least because he was an ‘immigrant’ to the USA, but also because like many of his contempories has a ‘day job’ that supplements his music earnings; and …. he’s a Tennis Pro!
Seriously …. he was a high-ranked competitive junior tennis player out of Sweden as a young man and now teaches in his down time while continuing as a touring musician, supporting acts as diverse as Little Richard, Emmylou, Humble Pie, Drivin’ and Cryin’ and The Misfits in an exciting twenty plus year career.
Released December 8th 2023
https://www.facebook.com/lars.nagel.14
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https://larsnagel.bandcamp.com/
The Rocking Magpie 