Album Review: Berry Prove Everything Can Be Compromised With Joy
Berry formed in 2002 when guitarist/vocalist Joey Lemon and drummer Paul Goodenough connected at an intensive four-month music program. The two Mid-Westerners then recruited college friend and keyboardist Matt Aufrecht and, later, bass player Shane Bordeau. For 15 years, the band made music, toured according to Amtrak schedules with solely the clothes on their back and their instruments on hands, and released music of excellence, experimentation, but little commercial success. If there is one thing most artists understand its failure, and the times you need to step away from what you love to remember why you love it. Thus, after a few years of separate careers, Berry have reunited to release ‘Everything Compromised’ LP.
The one notion that leaps out of Everything Compromised is the idea of a “bright revolution”. Tracks such as “Whoever And Ever, Amen”, “Civic Disobedience”, and “Delayed Delight” elevate you with folk, pop, and psychedelic fusions that feel like sweet berries being blended into a smoothie. As every chord, drumroll, and key swims through these genres, Berry creates a pool of positivity. Lyrically, they are all observing rebelliousness as the key to happiness, and maybe it is! The step to joy is often the step you take and make for yourself. Thus ,from “Amazing Grace” to “Mushroom Cloud Horizon”, the album soars like a dream haze; elevating visions of brighter times amongst the shadiness of darker ones. Personally, you cannot hit the spiritual marker better when summing up 2018.
Even in their “darker songs” such as, “Failure To Thrive” or “Fragments”, no sound or vocal ever gets too tense because Berry’s goal is to make you feel light. If anything, Joey Lemon keeps his voice supple and subtle, again, like a berry; for however small he makes his vocals they still feel plush. Arranging their instrumentals to have a certain childlike, lullaby quality, Berry makes embracing and trying to better your life sound like possible effort. They might as well transform “The Squirrel And The Pearl” into a children’s audio for adults. It is as if Lemon is singing to the inner child in every adult that can never grow up, but feels wounded by grown issues. Hence, you bite into Berry’s positivity because it does not deny negativity, but it makes empowering yourself feel like a fantasy. For More Information on Berry And To Buy Everything Compromised Click Here.
