Up to 84% in savings when you subscribe to The Absolute Sound
Logo

Begin typing your search above and press return to search. Press Esc to cancel.

Rock/pop

Sean Costello: In the Magic Shop

In The Magic Shop
Sean Costello: In the Magic Shop
  • Music
  • Sonics
  • A
  • A
  • A

A couple pertinent details about the astonishing “new” Sean Costello album: recorded in 2005 at The Magic Shop in New York City, its dozen mostly original tracks were only recently dusted off and polished to gleaming, widescreen sonic perfection by original producer (and four-time Grammy winner) Steve Rosenthal, whose poetic reminiscence in the liner booklet is a most moving tribute to a gifted, generous artist; also, all profits from album sales will support research at the Sean Costello Memorial Fund for Bipolar Research, in order to help fight the disorder that claimed the artist’s life on April 15, 2008, a day before his 29th birthday. Otherwise we are talking about a fully realized personal statement in blues and true R&B with Costello’s basic trio supplemented by a handful of guests. The revealing songs include a funky but searing R&B confessional, “I Went Wrong,” fueled by Costello’s gritty, soul-baring vocal; a beautifully nuanced, impassioned reading of “Trust in Me,” Mildred Bailey’s atmospheric, slow grooving blues ballad from 1937; “Make a Move,” all ferocious funk and gospel thrust—every song, in fact, is a highlight. Gone but vividly remembered, Sean Costello is fully present as a guitarist-vocalist-songwriter on this, a bona fide masterpiece.

Read Next From Music

Adblocker Detected

"Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit..."

"There is no one who loves pain itself, who seeks after it and wants to have it, simply because it is pain..."