David Mead – Tangerine (2006)
purchase this album (Amazon)
Goddammit, I was supposed to have written about this album like two weeks ago, but my order (yes, from those pricks at CD Universe — never again, I swear) has yet to arrive. So I caved in and bought it a second time, from iTunes, not only because I wanted to review it, but because David Mead happens to be one of my favorite songwriters around, and I was impatient to hear his new stuff.
Tangerine doesn’t disappoint. If you aren’t familiar with his work, you desperately need to be — and lucky for you, none of his albums have sold worth a damn, so you can find used copies of The Luxury of Time, Mine and Yours, Indiana, and the Wherever You Are EP for next to nothing.
This world, I’m telling you. It’s stupidly unfair. When a guy like David Mead, who has the voice of an angel and pop songwriting instincts that are something like flawless, doesn’t have a grossly overplayed hit blaring out of every speaker in your neighborhood, you know there’s no justice. Mead’s latest comes to us courtesy of Tallulah Media, which is another way of saying he released it himself, and we should all be very glad he did. After a pair of largely pensive outings, Tangerine’s twelve tracks return Mead to the sort of joyously baroque Technicolor pop he hinted at on his debut.
(Speaking of his debut, I never do this, but its leadoff track, “Robert Bradley’s Postcard” [download], is absolutely a hit that should have happened. In fact, I believe that in a parallel, more perfect universe, it topped the charts for even longer than “I Will Always Love You.”)
Anyway, this is a wonderful album. Sales be damned; for the good of our great nation, David Mead needs to be in this for the long haul. And you, my friend, need to do your part to make sure that happens. Buy a copy. Buy two. Matter of fact, buy a copy of Tangerine for everyone you know.
I could go on at length about the specific merits of each song, but that would probably just bore you; the important thing is, there isn’t a bum song on the record, and I’ll probably keep on spinning it for weeks. No, make that months. Forget about whatever crappy flavor of the moment you’re wasting your time with right now, drop what you’re doing, and give your ears over to David Mead. Start with “Chatterbox” (download) and “Fighting for Your Life” (download). You’ll be glad you did.
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