Review: Danny Newcomb’s “Steal the World”
Danny Newcomb – Steal the World
By Andy Bookwalter
Danny Newcomb lives on a tiny island, surrounded by sheep and millions of bees (he’s a farmer, they’re not after him). Once a year or so he puts down his bee and sheep stuff, summons the Sugarmakers, and spits out a really good record. I reviewed 2015’s Masterwish a few years ago.
I loved the record, and apparently Danny liked my review, because every once in a while he’ll get in touch with news about a show in a bike shop or an upcoming record. This makes me feel like a big man, and he gets access to the NadaMucho.com juggernaut. Everybody wins!
His last album, All the Way, (the review of which I thought never ran, now I’m not totally sure I wrote it) was a touch darker than the power pop goodness of Masterwish.
Steal the end World feels like a return to something a little more positive, at the very least a “Hey, we aren’t dead yet!” statement.
The opening song, “For Lou,” is a full on homage/tribute/crush song for Lou Reed and a salute to simple, stripped down music. It’s sort of sung in a Reedish cadence, too, which works better than I expected. The title song (“Steal the World,” makes me think of Jackson Brown for some reason.
“Pain” is the song to end the show. You know, the part where a bunch of band friends suddenly appear on stage with borrowed guitars and tambourines? Then, when the song ends, the lights come on and you have to remember what chair you left your coat on, and “oh crap did you even have a hat?” Yeah, that song.
There are more, but I can’t spend all night comparing Newcomb’s songs to other songs. Steal the World is great piece of guitar pop, check it out. – (7/10)