Album Review: The Streets Of Laredo Make You Want To Go “Wild”
The Streets of Laredo’s newest album Wild is like taking a hit of imagination. You are literally smacked by the vivid landscapes their songs induce of hopping bar to bar with laughing friends or riding across American deserts with no plans: just a feeling of being present. Wild is the perfect title for this album that makes you want to walk out of your home, walk out of your job, and walk out of everything you know to explore the world you always wanted to meet.
There is an inner explorer in all of us that ponders what makes the universe the universe or looks at the world and wonders, “How can I be a part of you?!”. Note that I said, “How can I be apart of you?!”, and not “How am I a part a you?”. The difference lies in the excitement of one’s approach to the vastness of life. Wild is too confident a record to waste its time trying to figure itself out, as we all do. This album is lyrically dedicated to those that have given up overanalyzing their purpose or that of the universe, and have decided, instead, to be apart of it, which explains why Wild is such a fun, liberating record.
Wild is a record thematically dedicated to asking Life, with all its layers, how you can be one more delicious layer unto its vibrant cake. You may laugh at my “cake analogy”, but what makes Wild a beautiful album is that it reminds you how delicious life can be if you stop asking yourself when or where you can take a slice of it. Instead, Wild is a spiritual prompt to always taste life’s richness, particularly through the harmonies between Dave, Daniel, and Sarah Jane Gibson. For me, the sweetness of Wild is forwarded by Stevie Nicks’ vocal twin Sarah Jane Gibson. I am convinced this woman should do a cover song of all Fleetwood Mac’s hits. Yet, she is in good folk company with lead singer Daniel Gibson, whose voice is frothy like a textured, warm soup. It holds the right amount of ingredients/emotions to push listeners’ to listen to the poesy of Streets of Laredo’s lyrics, while mutually investing in their rambunctious rhythms. When all three Gibsons unite in melody, you understand why folk music is such a purveyor of nomadism.
Folk music has always been about the wandering traveler we all, at least once, have pictured ourselves to be. We all have wondered what it would be like to aimlessly walk through this globe, and see what we spontaneously discover, to which Wild speaks to that curiosity with Americana infused string arrangements. In addition, the drumming by Dave Gibson and trumpeting/synthetic percussions by Andrew McGovern give the album a consistent, mellow heart-rate that makes you relish its inspired pictures of America’s fruitful plains. I know that my analogies may seem mad, but sometimes you need to think outside the box to describe something that does not have one.
In a world that has standardized how one’s life should go, i.e. go to school, go to work, get married, have kids, retire, and enjoy grandkids, Wild rises as music that asks its listeners to take a chance and choose their own route. Admittedly, I get a little misty eyed writing a review for this record. Not many albums paint such a vivid image of saying yes to life or rather saying yes to exploring it. For More Information On Streets Of Laredo and To Buy Wild On October 21 Click Here.
