Album Review
Huey and the New Yorkers – Say It To My Face
Huey Morgan is perhaps best known these days as a DJ with shows on BBC 6 Music and Radio 2. So it is perhaps easy to forget that he fronts the eclectic New York band Fun Lovin’ Criminals. With FLC seemingly in some sort of hiatus following the 2010 release Classic Fantastic it is great to see Morgan back in the studio to record a debut solo album.
Say It To My Face is a good album with some great songs included, all featuring Morgan’s low pitched, gritty and emotive vocals together with his lovely bluesy guitar playing. The lyrics are emotional and at times humorous and the production, done by Morgan himself alongside Grammy winner Tim Latham (Fun Lovin’ Criminals, De La Soul, Lou Reed), gives a clean and dynamic sound throughout. The blues tinged rock is infused with funk and soul, and even a touch of country on occasions, to create a unique sound that nicely sums up the half Porto Rican, half Irish New Yorker.
There is a wide range of music on this album. It starts with Stick It To The Man, a song about seventies baseball legend Dock Ellis who claimed to have thrown a no-hitter for the Pittsburgh Pirates after forgetting he was playing and taking LSD earlier in the day. And it ends with the epic The White Guard, named after Mikhail Bulgakov’s book about the Russian Civil War, which is a real highlight with its softer vocals and atmospheric Pink Floyd style vocal harmonies and guitar.
Shaniqua is a real stand out too. It starts with acoustic guitar and piano backing softer vocals with some great pedal steel guitar featured. This Lower East Side serenade is quite beautiful, telling of a relationship that doesn’t work out. New York Bluez is another fine track, full of great guitar work, haunting harmonica and strong vocals. And the emotional She Gone is slow and haunting, with perhaps Morgan’s best vocal performance on the album.
Dirty Bird is funky and features almost spoken vocals in places, but works well. The Ripple, a bass heavy blues track that ruminates on the consequences of our actions is strong too. The two country sounding songs on the album are close to satire yet have a serious edge. Fall Into Me opens with a dead dog while Christmas By The Side Of The Road is cheesy yet this tale of a soldier trying to get home for the festive season has a thoughtful side too.
Huey Morgan is clearly a multi-talented guy. And with Say It To My Face he has shown exactly what he can produce when he puts his mind to it. Good songwriting and great music make this an album that deserves to be heard.