Exhilarating three-part harmony pop-rock
Surprisingly, the advent of music coordinators for network television shows (and movies and commercials, of course) has proved a boon not only to the shows and viewers, but to indie artists who finesse their song onto the soundtrack of a hit show. Such is the case for the Los Angeles trio The Rescues, who’s “Crazy Ever After†wrapped up the doctors’ story lines on the season debut of Grey’s Anatomy. The song starts with a bass-and-drums intro and trades solo vocals as instruments step into the mix, climaxing with exhilarating, full-throated three-part harmony. Even more dramatic is the sparse acoustic version posted on the group’s MySpace page, which simplifies the backing to piano and acoustic guitar and uses Kyler England and Adrianne’s backing harmonies to frame Gabriel Mann’s pained, beseeching verses.
The Rescues take full advantage of their three singers by interweaving solos, duos and trios, shifting with each song’s need from male leads to female, and from female harmonies to male-female. There are echoes of Fleetwood Mac’s hook-filled pop-craft, but the intertwining of voices is more akin to the alchemy of CS&N and the power harmonies of Wilson-Phillips. The Rescues roots can be heard in the members’ solo albums [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11], but the group vocals and instrumental support of Adam Marcello (drums), Carson Cohen (bass) and Steve Mazur (guitar) amplify their performances beyond the songwriters’ introspective individual styles. As singers they’re emboldened by each other’s presence, stoking the urgency of emotional embers that burn amid the ashes of strained, detoured and dissolved relationships.
That same vocal energy turns into escape on “Break Me Out†and “Sweetspot,†with England and Adrianne’s vocals coiled into springs that launch them free of daily confines and into the arms of the ones they love. Mann’s previous solo version of “Shadows of Tall Buildings†is reworked here with counterpoint singing and an a cappella coda, and his autumnal “California Rain†is refined with a slower tempo, contemplative arrangement and strained falsetto. The instrumentation builds in sympathy with the vocals, from lone guitars and pianos to thick electric band arrangements. The vocals likewise build from one to three and back, dropping in a breath from a fire hose of harmony to a moment of solo reverie. The Rescues deft combination of lyrics, production and vocals came together with such quickness that one must assume their artistic enmeshment wasn’t so much made as uncovered. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com] 