Another Side

Album review

The lone solo album by founding Meters guitarist Leo Nocentelli was recorded in 1971, but it didn't get released until 50 years later. While many "lost" albums that find modern-day reissues have origins that are epiphanic or apocryphal (or, in many cases, were albums that weren't "lost" at all, but just forgotten), the tale behind Another Side manages to be both mundane and incredibly dramatic. The drama emerges from the long and complex tale that involves hurricanes, the destruction of New Orleans' cultural history, storage sheds, flea markets, and the brother of the Beastie Boys' keyboard player. The mundanity comes from the roots of the music itself: the tracks on Another Side were recorded when the Meters were briefly on hiatus as their original record label had gone out of business, stalling any of the group's commercial momentum after the success of "Cissy Strut." (This was before the Meters signed to Warner Bros. and experienced the mid-'70s career renaissance that found them opening for the Rolling Stones.) Nocentelli decided to go into a local studio with friendly and familiar musicians—two of the other three Meters, plus Allen Touissaint—to lay down a handful of tracks that reflected, er, another side of his musical personality. As Nocentelli was the group's most prolific songwriter, it's not at all surprising that he had a wealth of ideas ready to get out, but the form that those ideas took is somewhat surprising; this is a collection of tracks that indulge in languid, near-folksy southern rock, not the tight, slinky funk of the Meters. Dominated by Nocentelli's plaintive vocals and fulsome acoustic guitar playing, cuts like "Riverfront" and "Pretty Mittie" are warm, bluesy numbers that are spare and direct in their storytelling, while "You've Become a Habit" and "I Want to Cry" rework the formula into straightforward love songs. "Tell Me Why" is laid-back, complete with hippie-era spiritual questioning that's not quite stoner-in-the-grass, but isn't too far from it, either. Simplicity, openness, and directness are the watchwords here, as none of these songs are over-arranged or overly fussed with, but instead display a casual confidence from all the performers. The occasional bits of technical fireworks or dramatic flourishes (the arching climax of the bridge in "I Want to Cry," for instance, or the way that "Give Me Back My Loving" manages to converge country twang and funky, staccato rhythms) seem like completely organic byproducts of the high skill levels of the musicians involved, rather than conscious attempts to show off. Of course, it's not exactly the stuff of legends when an artist on a break cuts some tracks to work through some creative urges; at the end of the day, the music that Nocentelli laid down on these tapes is far more interesting than the journey that the tapes took. (Surprisingly, given that journey, the fidelity here is impressive, and only a few tracks suffer from tape damage.) And while the drama may get people to pay attention to Another Side, the music itself will keep you coming back. © Jason Ferguson/Qobuz