Miles Nielsen - Miles

The offspring of famous musicians often have a hard time if they are set on following their parents' chosen career. There’s the initial interest from music-lovers mainly to hear if they sound anything remotely like their famous parents and then the usual backlash when they do…or don’t. Teddy Thompson, along with Rufus and Martha Wainwright, seem likely to stay the course but how many others have matched or even outshone their famous parents? Even Jimmy Webb’s boys started out getting rave reviews before seemingly disappearing. ‘Miles’ is the debut album from the son of Rick Nielsen, the guitarist and singer in Cheap Trick, a band that have sold a few albums in their time, and thankfully, although he has retained his father’s appreciation for a catchy melody, he has forsaken the wacky clothes and fondness for combining pop with harder rock riffs. The twelve original songs offered here take more of a pure pop road with bright melodies just right for carefree sunny days driving to the beach. That’s not to say that the songs are disposable, fluffy pop; they are far from that. The playing of which Nielsen takes electric, acoustic and bass guitars (along with Daniel James McMahon who also contributes the above instruments as well as keyboards and is a major player in Nielsen’s band, Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons) is polished and tight, and vocally Nielsen has a warm, distinctive voice with little in the way of any major influences. One gets the feeling that Nielsen is not trying too hard to sound like anyone else other than Miles Nielsen. While not making any major developments in the world of music or breaking any new ground, Nielsen has the savvy to know that an album full of even the well-constructed pop-songs he puts on show here is going to sound very samey after very few plays if the songs don’t have melodies that will last the course or if he doesn’t occasionally take a step outside of the pure-pop circle that his songs belong in. So with songs like ‘Martha’ where the strains of Mott The Hoople’s quieter moments are given a country-tinged hue Nielsen shows that he is no one-trick-pony. With the instruments weeping over all each other and Nielsen proving that he can turn on the emotion when needed, the song is a highlight on ‘Miles’. To be honest if Miles wasn’t the son of Rick I doubt very much if the name of Cheap Trick would show up in any reviews of this album and it has to be said that if any comparisons to his father’s band could be made then it would have to be on the songs that, strangely, don’t work so well here like ‘Hey Hey Hey’. While there is nothing remotely wrong with the song it is very much a case of heard it all before, and despite some interesting guitar playing on the track it fails to make any great impression. Where Miles Nielsen really impresses is on songs like the aforementioned ‘Martha’ and the similar ‘Sugaree’ where he injects both country and soul influences into his pop based songs. His vocals are outstanding on the slower songs where, it seems, he takes the chance to display just how emotive his vocals can be. This is an impressive debut and coming from someone who admits that “Most of my childhood was spent on a tour bus travelling across the country with Cheap Trick” maybe it’s not surprising that the playing is so strong and the vocals so captivating. One album that will stand repeated playing, that’s for sure and a great taster for even better things to come from Miles, one feels.

Track Listing:-

1 A Festival
2 Gravity Girl
3 Lost My Mind
4 1938
5 Don't You
6 Martha
7 Good Heart Sway
8 Hey Hey Hey
9 Sugaree
10 Wine
11 Lucy
12 The Crown

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/milesnielsenm
http://www.milesnielsen.com/
https://twitter.com/TheRustedHearts
https://www.instagram.com/therustedhea

Interviews

Interview (2012)

Musician/songwriter Miles Nielsen, before performing a set with his group Rusted Hearts at Chicago's Northcenter Rib Fest, speaks with Lisa Torem about guest artists on his new album, its themes and his talented band mates