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CD Reviews

Anthony DaCosta "In MySpare Time" CD Review

"The toughest battles to fight are often matters of the heart." -Anthony DaCosta
I think the only relevance of the tender age of this artist is that because he is so young he doen't know you're not supposed to make a CD in a week or a few days. I hope he never learns. In this modern landscape of independent artists making "perfect" CD's that sound like they could be major label releases, it is so refreshing to hear the energy, joy, and humanity in the sound of a small group of people in a studio playing together. I listen to hundreds of new independent releases, and they all begin to sound the same to me. Perfect, pristine, with no room ambience and more importantly no room for spontaneity, many new singer/ songwriter CD's sound flat to me. I see the artists live, pick up the CD excitedly, get in my car and pop it in, and wind up saying to myself "Where is the person I just saw live in all of this?" Anthony DaCosta's simple, honest, gentle, passionate, vulnerable, and poetic songs about the human condition deserve no less then the space and freedom they find on this recording of a few friends playing together without self-judgement. This CD is lo-fi, and it doesn't know or acknowledge the "rules" of making a record. It is intimate and soulfull, and the musicians play as if no tape is rolling and they are there for themselves, for the joy of it. There is talking and laughter between songs, and the listener feels as if he's been let into the process. What more, besides good songs, can a listener ask? I find myself listening to the song "Matters Of The Heart" over and over and over again, and cannot stop crying each time I hear it. Anthony DaCosta's songs shine a beautiful, delicate light on the heart of what it is to be human, and on this recording that light is more a lava-lamp then a spot-light. If you like lava-lamps better then the pale, flourescent lights of our modern age then you will love this e.p.

Review by Fred Gillen Jr.