Steve Connelly and the Lesser Gods - Every Monster

  by Malcolm Carter

published: 5 / 7 / 2010

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In a perfect world the wonderfully-named and beautifully-presented independent Sunshine Drenchy label would be releasing albums every month, but the Florida based label seem content to ditch quantity for quality and this latest release by Steve Connelly is yet another winner for the Sunshine Drenchy guys. Connelly’s guitar work was one of the things that helped make the Headlights one of the more special bands of the 70s and 80s. Catching one of the Headlights gigs in a bar near his Florida beach house was all that was needed to convince former Byrd Roger McGuinn that here was the band he was searching for to back him on his then forthcoming tour to promote his ‘Back From Rio’ album, still his greatest solo work incidentally. Most of the time since then Connelly has been working as an in-demand producer for other bands at his Zen Recording Studio, while still managing the odd Headlights reunion gig here and there and helping out another former Headlight, Ed Woltil, in the Ditchflowers. With all that going on it’s not surprising that Connelly has taken so long to make his debut solo album, but if any album was ever worth waiting for then it’s ‘Every Monster’. While billed as being by Steve Connelly and the Lesser Gods, it appears that apart from backing vocals by Madelyn Adams and with no fewer than three different drummers helping out, Connelly played all the other instruments heard on these ten original songs. The first thing that hits you on hearing ‘Every Monster’ is what a master of the guitar Connelly is. So he proved that already through his work with the Headlights (and obviously McGuinn knows a thing or two when it comes to guitarists so by choosing Connelly to back him it also shows that other musicians respect him), but this is the first time in a long time that we’ve had something new to listen to where Connelly is given the space to hammer home just what an outstanding guitar player he is. Now, having raved on about just how good this musician is on the guitar it has to be said that the most surprising thing about ‘Every Monster’ is that the best song here is a piano-based ballad. Connelly closes his album with a song called ‘Inside Today’ where he shows a completely different side to that he displays throughout the rest of the album. ‘Inside Today’ is one of those songs that will give you goose-bumps not only the first time you hear it but every time after too. The news that Connelly was going to release his first solo album had me checking out his website www.steveconnellymusic.com to discover that he had the complete album there to listen to. So I went through the whole lot, song by song, and by the time I’d reached the penultimate track, ‘The End of David Watts’, it was obvious that so far, with only the odd dip or two along the way, Connelly had gathered a collection of songs that were up their with his best. There were no real surprises, just great guitar solos; melodies that refuse to leave you, a fantastic production by Connelly and Vance Borland and songs that lyrically, are almost as sharp as those of fellow Sunshine Drenchy label-mate Steve Robinson, always well-written and accessible. These are songs with structure, real songs in other words. But nothing prepared me for that closing song. Just the fact that ‘Inside Today’ opens with piano instead of Connelly’s trademark guitar is surprise enough but then he sings in what must be his most heartfelt vocal performance to date, “When I woke up/For a minute I’m sure/That you’re there beside me and it’s still before/ Oh but how’d you get in here?/I locked all the doors” all the songs that went before fade for a few minutes while Connelly takes his music to a level we’d forgotten existed. The previous nine songs were great but ‘Inside Today’, is truly something else. Rarely has a love-gone-wrong song been so affecting. If you only have the time to listen to one Steve Connelly song make it ‘Inside Today’ it might be the least Connelly-type song on the album but it will move anyone whose heart still beats. Check out the lyrics on the site while listening to the song and then try to resist buying the whole album. Strangely, the opening song, ‘Kingdom Come’, is more or less Connelly-by-numbers. It’s a pleasing rocker and while I am sure that Connelly must be sick and tired of all the McGuinn comparisons by now this song really could have been pulled from ‘Back From Rio’. It’s got the trademark soaring Connelly guitar which lifts the song obviously and it’s debatable if Connelly will ever actually record just an average song, but the song just lacks that special sprinkling of magic that all the other songs here have despite some outstanding guitar. But then Connelly pulls it all back with the following song, ‘It Takes All Kinds’ and the smiles appear even before Connelly opens his mouth. Yep, the McGuinn influence is still there (and that’s no bad thing remember), but the melody of the song and those catchy guitar runs make sure the smile doesn’t fade throughout despite the song being lyrically dark. That Connelly manages to evoke a feeling of well-being while singing lines such as “A little man in New York City/His fingers on a gun/Saying ‘Voices made me do it, and you know I love John…and Yoko’” just proves what a master musician this man is. ‘Crowded In Here’ is also lyrically very smart detailing Connelly’s lifelong love of music and, in particular, the guitar. Again one wonders while listening to this song why Connelly isn’t known world wide as one of the greatest guitar players of these times. Apart from that closing song which simply has to be Connelly’s finest song to date, ‘Every Monster’ is a collection of solid pop/rock that are superbly produced by a musician who is surely, right now, at the top of his game. Anyone who has heard the Headlights already knows that Connelly is an exceptionable musician but this collection of songs shows that even after all these years of making and producing great music he can still cut it better than most. ‘Every Monster’ is a minor classic, the kind of album that if not too many people discover now will gain cult status in years to come and one that Connelly can and should be immensely proud of. Check out Connelly’s website and take a listen to ‘Inside Today’, Underachiever’ or ‘Time To Fly’; the proof is all there.

Track Listing:-

1 Kingdom Come
2 It Takes All Kinds
3 Every Monster
4 Judgment Day
5 Underachiever
6 Time To Fly
7 They Killed Love
8 Crowded In Here
9 The End of David Watts
10 Inside Today

Label Links:-

http://sunshinedrenchy.tumblr.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/sunshinedrenchy
http://www.last.fm/label/Sunshine+Drenchy+Records

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