Karma for Cheap

Album review

"How could I compare myself to the Beatles? They changed the world and I can't even change a tire..." Aaron Lee Tasjan is quite lucid - and humurous - about his obsession with the Fab Four. An obsession that oozes from Karma For Cheap: tasty sixties candy with killer choruses, bewitching guitars and catchy melodies. In just a few years, Nashville became a magnet for all kinds of freaks. A saving islet where we find space cowboys and craftsmen of an old-fashioned pop, like Tasjan from Ohio who dropped anchor there in 2013. The kind of unimpressionable guy who would rather listen to the complete Kinks Pye albums for the 458th time than keep up with all the almost monthly productions of Kanye West and Drake combined... More McCartney than Lennon, Aaron Lee Tasjan had intrigued the crowds in 2016 with Silver Tears, a nice album influenced by tasteful people like Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman, James Taylor, Tom Petty, Willie Nelson and Traveling Wilburys. With a little piano here, some guitar arpeggios there and aboveall reinforced concrete choruses, this former freelance guitarist for various groups (New York Dolls, Drivin' n' Cryin', Elizabeth Cook...) already displayed a certain class. More raw, more biting and more lively, his third album also leans towards Bowie, Badfinger, Tom Petty or even Oasis, and will be able to serve as a regressive rock'n'roll comforter to face the winter cold... © Marc Zisman/Qobuz