A high quality singer-songwriter offering.
Greg Mendez spent the best part of fifteen years writing and performing before achieving a breakthrough. His 2023 self-titled album reached an audience his previous work had not. Much of it revolved around his descent into addiction that had led to stints of homelessness and trauma.
Mendez works with a real economy and simplicity. Many of these tracks clock in at less than two minutes. You are never left feeling short changed though. Each song is simply as long as it needs to be. This album was recorded in a home studio directly onto tape in an old fashioned analogue style. Lyrically there are some call backs to previous topics and a strong feel of death at times. Despite that there is also much joy here.
Mendez has a great voice and uses it well. The music is inventive. At times it is just him and his guitar. At others the palette is gently widened. A toy piano leaves its mark on ‘Gentle Love.’ His wife Veronica sings with him on the beautiful ‘So Mean.’ ‘I Wanna Feel Pretty’ is an astonishing track, the piano kicking in at just the right moment to both compliment and oppose his voice.
Despite the subject matter, this is an uplifting, almost spiritual album. It is full of honesty and creativity. Mendez deserves to reach a far wider audience.
Essential tracks: ‘I Wanna Feel Pretty,’ ‘Looking Out The Window,’ ‘Gentle Love,’ and ‘So Mean.’
Leave a Reply