JOHN GARCIA — John Garcia (review)

JOHN GARCIA — John Garcia album cover Album · 2014 · Stoner Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
UMUR
"John Garcia" is the eponymously titled debut full-length studio album by US hard/stoner rock vocalist John Garcia. The album was released through Napalm Records in July 2014. Garcia is probably mostly known as founding member and vocalist in stoner rock legends Kyuss, but he has also been involved in other acts like Unida, Slo-Burn, Hermano and most recently Vista Chino. The latter mentioned released the great "Peace" album in 2013, but disbanded in 2014 and Garcia then opted for a solo career. He is helped out here by prolific artists like Danko Jones, Tom Brayton, Mark Diamond, and Nick Oliveri. Robby Krieger from The Doors makes a guest appearance on the closing track "Her Bullets' Energy".

The music on the album is pretty much a continuation of the hard/stroner rock style of Vista Chino, which basically means accessible and memorable rock with a heavy edge and a dusty desert atmosphere. It´s not obvious that it´s a singer´s solo album, as there is great focus on the instrumental part of the music too, and John Garcia doesn´t fill every empty instrumental space with vocals, but instead lets the music breathe when that is called for. It´s both admirable and necessary as it prevents the album from falling into the same generic trap as a lot of other solo projects by lead vocalists often end up in. Good vocals, boring predictable music. Here both the instrumental part of the music and the vocals work well individually and together, and it generally sounds more like a band effort than a solo album. Hard rockers like "My Mind" and "All these Walls" are among the highlights on the album, but I´d say it´s an album which deserves to be listened to from start to finish, as it features a good flow, and a satisfying degree of variation.

The album is very well produced featuring an organic and powerful sound, which suits the music well and all in all this is a high quality debut album by John Garcia. There are few surprises here, but who really wants those when it comes to John Garcia? As long as the quality of the performances, the sound production, and the quality of the material are as high as they are here, I´m happy as a pig in mud. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.
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