- Artist: Neal Casal
- Rating:
- Release Date: 1997
- Total Time: 49:01
- Type: Compilation (best of)
- Genre: Rock
Review
A collection of "demos, dirges, out-takes, take-outs, songs proper and song fragments, all recorded in different times in different basements, living rooms, altered states, and state of the art studios, real, imagined, and car tested...." So say the liner notes on Neal Casal's third album, which is a compilation of previously unreleased material. Those familiar with Casal's other recordings will find nothing new in the majority of these songs, while for those unfamiliar, this is as good a place to start as any of his albums. Though the album doesn't always flow perfectly from one song to the next, this is to be expected, due to its nature. Some of the tracks were released on other Casal albums in different forms, such as "Best to Believe" and "Angels on Hold." The real highlight, though, is "Don't Turn Your Back on Me," an outtake from the 1994 demos that earned Casal a record deal. Beginning with a lovely piano introduction, the song builds to a soaring, go-for-broke electric guitar solo featuring some of Casal's finest recorded playing. The folky troubadour is still present on songs such as the Dan Fogelberg-esque "December" and confidently defiant "Watch Me Survive." One of the standout songs on Fade Away Diamond Time was the cover of Barbara Keith's "Detroit or Buffalo"; on Field Recordings, Keith's quieter, though no less affecting, "Sleeping Under Stone" is covered. A humorous sort of "bonus track," "Blood on the Boombox," features a teenage Casal jamming on the heavy metal riffs of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" in a high school basement band. ~ Rob Caldwell, Rovi| Field Recording (2000 Album by Doug Carman) | |
| Field Recordings (2001 Album by Reynolds) |
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