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| Noah Budin - News & Reviews |
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Review of Metaphor from coolcleveland.com
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Budin is a singer-songwriter of deep faith and conviction. He's also a solid musician with a gift for marrying words to music. This collection of songs has an easy folk/country sway to it, bringing to mind a sort of Steve Earle of Jewish mysticism. He's surrounded himself with some of Northeast Ohio's finest musicians, including members of the Prayer Warriors, Harmonia's Walt Mahovlich, and go-to-guy for hot sax licks Norm Tischler. The production value is crisp and clean, keeping Budin's strong yet sensitive vocals in the foreground. Touches of cello and piano color the ballads, screaming electric guitar the more driving songs.
Religious faith and social justice are the things that matter to Budin and he writes poetically about both, presenting them as sides of the same coin. On the heart-breaking "The Silent Son," he sings poignantly of a man dying of AIDS. The simple guitar accompaniment is subtly enhanced by Mahovlich's accordion. (Perhaps a little too subtly - the soft chords are nearly buried in the mix.) He takes on a subject as weighty as the creation ("Fire") and renders it in an emotive ballad with some painterly wordplay.
The evocative opening line "And grappling with the poetry of a sunset" tugs the listener right into the story. Contrast this with the rattly rockabilly of "Carry That Rock." The story of Moses gets a clattery one-take treatment with banjo, mandolin, piano, and drums. Though it happened decades ago, Budin references the march on Selma not once, but twice ("Edge of the Ocean" and "Every Step a Prayer"), driving home the event's continued relevance.
Metaphor has a historical sweep that takes us from the dawn of humankind to the plagues of the present day. Budin manages to give the even most mystical subject matter a very human immediacy, and does it with a warm musicality.
Reviewed by Peggy Latkovich
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