Waking Up Shakey

Waking Up Shakey

Bruce Von Stiers

Alejandro Rose-Garcia just had a birthday a few days ago. He has been seen in films such as Spy Kids 3: Game Over and Sin City: A Dame To Kill For. But Alejandro is also the musical artist known as Shakey Graves.

Up to this point Shakey Graves has recorded five albums, both full albums and EP's. A few weeks ago, he released his latest effort, a full album titled Can't Wake Up.

I didn't know any of Shakey's music before receiving the album, so I researched it a bit. It seems this new album slightly departs from his earlier styling. There appeared to be a few online detractors about the new album, but most of Shakey's fans seem to embrace the new album. That made a good start for me being able to write about the album.

Can't Wake Up has thirteen songs and a play time of a bit under an hour. The album was released on the Duotone Music label.

Counting Sheep is the first song. It is melodic, yet moody and a bit haunting in parts.

Kids These Days has a kind of alt pop rock sound to it.

Climb On The Cross has a kind of ‘60's vibe. It made me think of Eric Burden and the Animals.

Dining Alone is an easy going ballad with good guitar and solid vocals.

My Neighbor is a kind of fun ballad that starts out with music that reminded me of Hall & Oates. Then the song moves into a cool light toe-tapping beat.

Excuses is yet another great ballad.

Cops and Robbers has a head bopping beat.

Mansion Door has pretty decent guitar. The vocals kind of reminded me of Simon & Garfunkel.

Other cool and interesting songs on the album are Back Seat Driver, Foot of Your Bed and Aibohphobia.

The album closes with an interesting, light song called Tin Man.

Shakey Graves definitely has a way with lyrics and music. His songs have a tip of the hat to different generations of pop and rock music. Wrapping it all up with solid vocals that at times seem throaty, almost nicotine ridden, makes the songs on this album very interesting.

Can't Wake Up is available on iTunes, amazon.com, Spotify and other music retailers.

The official web site for Shakey Graves is https://www.shakeygraves.com/

Back to the BVS Reviews Main Menu

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________