By Alan Haber – Pure Pop Radio
Brian Gari | Jeanne’s Album (Original Cast, 2019)
A kind of old-fashioned, heartfelt song cycle, Brian Gari’s tremendously affecting and musical Jeanne’s Album chronicles his life with his wife Jeanne through their ups and downs and up agains.
With keyboards and guitars primarily played by Gari and Peter Millrose painting Gari’s songs with colorful, catchy brushstrokes, we learn that the couple’s romance has not only come upon some bumps in the road, such as Gari’s open-heart surgery and Jeanne’s bout with breast cancer, but conquered and surpassed them. Theirs is a love story for the ages, told in beautifully rendered songs.
Swimming in the same creative pond as fellow travelers like Gilbert O’Sullivan, Hurricane Smith, Richard Carpenter, Barry Manilow and Paul Williams, Gari has crafted 14 genuine pictures of a life in motion, played out in relatively short songs graced with gorgeous, affecting melodies.
The breezy and catchy “I Got What I Wanted” gets Gari’s program going with a sweet look at being fulfilled by one true love. Songs like the light bossa nova roll, “I Like Looking at Your Face,” tell the tale in what-you-see-is-what-you-love terms (“Your nose…I just love the shape of it / Send me off a tape of it / And I’ll marvel all night long”); other songs concern themselves with more serious shades of a love.
The upbeat, poppy “She May Think You Like Her” warns against giving a woman the wrong idea (“The perfect one is there at home / She fits you like a glove / But she may think you like her / You like that other girl but like ain’t love”). “No Checks” is a bluesy pop number that looks at being broke with a sense of humor (“And we don’t have a nickel / We’re in quite a pickle”).
Two songs deal with some serious life-changing bumps in the road that Gari and his wife went through. The first, the endearing piano ballad, “Saving Each Other’s Lives,” suggests that the couple was brought together to breathe life into each other’s hearts just when they needed that the most “(Grateful seems to be the perfect word / Amazing what the two of us endured / And somehow we showed up to change our flight / Otherwise we might have said goodnight”).
The second, “Whose Hair is Longer,” a sad but ultimately uplifting ballad, posits that losing her hair during chemotherapy didn’t change who his wife was (“Your heart’s still the same”) or would continue to be (“My hair is longer / That’s only for now / What’s more important / Is we don’t allow / Any thoughts or concerns / That might interfere / Cause what matters the most / Is that you’re still here”).
A pair of Christmas songs appear as bonus tracks on this emotionally-satisfying album, a gathering of intensely personal songs that sketch out a world where everything may not always be hunky-dory, but it will always be true.
Where to Get It: Amazon
Alan Haber’s Pure Pop Radio is the premiere website covering the melodic pop scene with in-depth reviews of new and reissued recordings, and a wide variety of features. We’ve been around since the first weekly Pure Pop Radio shows, which began broadcasting in 1995, and the 24-hour Pure Pop Radio station, which ended last August.
Welcome to your number one home for coverage of the greatest melodic pop music in the universe from the ’60s to today.