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Chris Picco - Ferris Wheel
By Jarrett Arsenault
(08/01/09)

Chris Picco’s Ferris Wheel greets you with a calming, down-stroke, clean guitar sound that reminds me of the persistent individual at your place of work who always seems to be bumming smokes. You feel obliged to keep listening, or giving out your slowly diminishing supply of cigarettes in the latter case, in hopes that it will go away. The bass seems lacking in general and follows the guitar in its own audacious journey to blend in and just be far back enough so the vocals can prevail. I have to give credit to Devon’s drumming on being slightly less than awesome; there aren’t many drummers with the willpower to be reserved and tightly knit. Then there’s Chris.

Originally I was under the impression that there was only one artist on this album, and it all seemed to add up with most of the focus being on the vocals. When I looked further into the matter, I was surprised to find that there are, in fact, five band members. All in all, this is a mostly vocal album. Not at all in the sense of range or originality, but I’m assuming that there is some calibre of meaning behind Chris’ lyrics. With exceptions to the track names, and the reiterative references to “him,” I felt slightly taken back by the overall feeling the album gave me. If content was the feeling the band wanted to convey, then they definitely nailed it on the head.

I can listen to the album again and candidly maintain a feeling that they did something right. The music, while keeping relatively in the same key and in a seemingly limited in range, does put a genuine smile on your face. These guys are tight and succeed in their chosen style with the skill of a seasoned pro. While not impressed with the repetitive style, Ferris Wheel is professedly strung together. It happily reminds me of nights around a campfire with a few beers. Where the campfire is electrical, the beers are in fact coolers, and the people music-ing it up are in a European coffee shop.

Chris Picco’s band does have a pleasant sound and they throw it all together in such a way that lets you take each track as separate, yet similar entity. Chris’ voice provides the listener with a very confident role as the lead, but somehow still creates the impression that they are all playing as one big happy instrument. With the lyrical prowess of the title track, “Ferris Wheel,” as well as “Random Feeling,” and “I Can’t Remember Anything,” all the other instruments begin to make sense. The album really did pull through in the end, and I can not only say that I enjoyed the band’s Indie/Content/Pop-Like music, but that I would enjoy seeing this band play live.

They are given my reluctant seal of approval, and here’s to hoping we hear more from this strangely likeable band.

Related links:
+ Chris Picco (official site)
+ Chris Picco (MySpace)

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Jarrett Arsenault is musician/drop-out of sorts with talents in many instruments. While in the midst of starting up a funk/trip-hop band, he stumbled upon the opportunity to pursue a once prominent pastime, writing. With the strong influences from John Frusciante, Hunter S. Thompson, and the disembodied eye who is constantly judging him, Jarrett plans to either pursue Journalism, Law, or Music in the future.