Reviews

Pat Carter
Album: Love In The Time Of Capitalism
Label: London Rage
Tracks: 13
Website: https://www.facebook.com/pat.carter.berlin/

Pat Carter is the singer, songwriter with Berlin-based Americana band Rodeo FM. And that berlin base is particularly relevant to the opening song of his debut solo album, Here's To You. Over a driving brushed drum beat and chiming guitars her sings "there's nowhere to go and nothing to do. You are trapped in 1933."

Gentle and Honest has a soulful organ and brass sound reminiscent of some of the best Van Morrison songs. Lyrically it's a plea for the world to be more about both those things. "It's not about a broken promise; It's not about a wrong word." Musically the album sits across many of the alt. country/americana styles. Pedal Steel, dobro, and a shuffle beat. He describes his music as a "Left-Wing-Country," and his mission as rescuing country from the prevailing view of it as a mouthpiece of the right. Having started his songwriting under the influence of Nirvana and Dinosaur Junior there is always going to be that element of punk about the delivery. The emotion and passion that flows out of his songs certainly shows that.

Ask Me sits somewhere between Springsteen and Petty. The album's title song starts with an acoustic guitar figure which could be John Fahey before drifting towards the most "country" song so far. McKay Belk's pedal steel guitar shines on a story of finding love despite the struggles of life in a harsh world. Barbed Wire features Stefano Zecca's lead guitar, which is one of the musical highlights running through the album. The mix of indie pop, folk and soul which he plays with across the whole record blend well here, with the guitar and piano from an Isaac Hayes record over the familiar backbeat.

At 13 songs long you may expect that there would be at least one or two less than stellar songs. But each one has its own self-contained world and story, so you never find yourself reaching for the skip button. The sounds change form song to song as well. The Banjo on Kitchen Door, and the pedal steel, especially on Why Do Birds. That song is as close to a manifesto for his musical life as he offers.

The Prefab Sprout style ballad Miranda is a genuinely lovely tune, and contrasts with single Big Machine which "draws a bleak portrait of life in late capitalist urban society - where personal despair and systemic failure go hand in hand. Where everybody is always too late, too broke and too disillusioned to foster a dream."

The album rounds out firstly with the Neil Young sounding Xenia, Ohio, about the struggles of post-industrial America in a place which has been devastated by Hurricane at least twice in the last 50 years. The metaphor there is clear. Lastly there is What About Trouble, an almost 60s Greenwich Village folk tune.

Carter's social consciousness flows through the album and his reaction to its release, saying on Instagram. "It seems ridiculous promoting an album in the face of what's happening in Gaza and elsewhere. But the album also tells a tale. Of how toxic this system is. This world. that brings about Gaza. And how love hopefully prevails beyond hunger. And how live is connected to other non-tangible and thus non-commodifiable human traits like empathy, solidarity and the urge to resist."

An album with such an obvious social and political set of messages to offer must provide something special musically to stand up to repeated playing. Love In The Time Of Capitalism is that album.

Tim Martin

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