Brian Shapiro and his band’s second album, It’s Amazing, includes ten songs that you will agree, without qualification, are different from anything else out there today. It isn’t necessarily that he’s remade the songwriting wheel or anything so groundbreaking; instruments are still necessary, songs still have titles, and you’ll hear verse, chorus, verse – at least intermittently. He pushes the envelope, instead, by regularly upending his listener’s expectations. Listeners accustomed to songwriting will hear Shapiro zig when they expect him to zag and, in some cases, flagrantly challenged what they think cuts it as song lyrics.
“Ambitigeddon” puts you out on the bleeding edge from the beginning. There’s no effort on Shapiro’s part to “ease you in”. The Brian Shapiro Band comes off sounding like a more theatrical version of early 80’s Talking Heads, but yet more minimal as well. Lyrics and music alike are pared down to their essentials. It’s only Shapiro’s vocals that are given a wide berth and his highly stylized performance could come off badly to many, but Shapiro makes it a must-hear experience. Michael Brenner’s sax is an unexpected touch.
Other musicians make guest appearances as well. “So Much” is a great example of the intelligent songwriting driving his work on the band’s first album All That We See and this new collection. Few songwriters today would dare write a song about the vagaries of perception and how so often we are content with believing what we know represents reality as a whole. Shapiro’s vocal sings some of the lines “straight”, but much of his singing throughout It’s Amazing is heightened, heavily theatrical.
BANDCAMP: https://brianshapiroband.bandcamp.com/album/its-amazing
One of the more personal moments on the album arrives with the album’s third track “Am Now”. It has a more mainstream tilt at first but soon finds its own way with another offbeat musical arrangement. Kutner-Duff’s arranging skills are wide-ranging enough that they can challenge preconceptions while touching base with fundamental songwriting principles. His creative partnership with Shapiro never overshadows the latter and is a crucial component of the Brain Shapiro Band’s success.
“More Memories” will be the showstopper for a lot of listeners as it brings together Shapiro’s outstanding songwriting imagination with note-perfect musical accompaniment. A lot of people are going to peg this track as the album’s most traditional moment, as well, thanks to its duet between Shapiro’s voice and guest Alex Posmontier’s piano. The punky blast of “New Newz” is a little too cluttered and chaotic to leave a lasting musical impact and its cheeky lyric listing news platforms for listeners wears out its welcome long before the song ends. This is far, far more successful at a little more than half its current duration.
Additional brass makes its presence felt on the penultimate track “Take-N-Make”. St. Clair Simmons’ trombone isn’t your typical guest horn, but it drops an oddly appropriate melancholic note into the song. The deliberate pacing of the cut helps put extra emphasis on its thoughtful lyric. It’s small, understated touches such as the trombone that give the Brian Shapiro Band’s It’s Amazing even further distinction. It’s one of 2022’s outlier picks for album of the year and well worth your consideration.
Claire Uebelacker