Brad Brooks – God Save The City (Mouth Magic Music)

This is my first taste of Brad Brooks a singer songwriter from the San Francisco Bay Area and it is nice to hear an old school artist performing almost in the troubadour style of old who delights in telling tales and singing songs about real life. Most modern singer of his ilk seem to be the pretty boy manufactured types and/or former TV talent show refugees but Brooks seems to have that ‘protest singer’ vibe about him and he tells it as it is and performs for his art rather than to sell posters that hang on teenage girls bedroom walls!

Apparently, Brooks received lots of positive coverage for his vitality and delivery on his 2012 album Harmony Of Passing Light and drew comparison with the likes of Elvis Costello, Wilco and Brian Wilson which is praise indeed. It has taken quite some time for the release of this new album God Save The City‘ and there are a number of people, no doubt including Brad Brooks, who didn’t think this day would come as he has fought a long and desperate battle against the demon that is throat cancer. Thankfully he has survived and recovered from this terrifying ordeal and it appears to have given him a renewed lust for life and a source for new material so this is and was always going to be a most emotional album.

The music is cultured and beautifully played but the source material is raw and emotional with songs that are soul tinged from an artist revelling in life. His voice is sumptuous and emotionally charged as he performs a range of material railing against the inadequacies of modern day life and how we treat each other.

Brooks has surrounded himself with quality musicians and they have helped to produce a provoking and stimulating album and it is pleasing to report that his voice is as good as ever and perhaps even better as he now has a slightly darker and deeper tone and this suits his new and aggressive material perfectly.