Alejandro Escovedo

In April 2003, Alejandro Escovedo collapsed after a show in Phoenix and was subsequently diagnosed with Hepatitis C. "Arizona," the opening track on his first studio album since those dark days, makes it clear that Escovedo is a changed man. "I turned my back on me," he sings atop a rich backdrop, spacious and disorienting like the desert. It's not a catchy song, per se, or even a pleasant one; instead, its design seems more about establishing mood and motif. In setting the table, Escovedo also shows off his fine crew of collaborators, led by producer John Cale (of Velvet Underground fame) and guitarist and longtime pal Jon Dee Graham. Unquestionably, it's a team that appreciates a good melody, and can blend the vigor and enthusiasm of youth -- a near-death experience surely helps to recapture those holy grails -- with the chops and hard lessons of age.

From the intimately personal opener -- which delves into Escovedo's failed health and subsequent forced sobriety and, more peripherally, the beginning of his marriage -- the singer/songwriter looks for outside help with inspiration, leading to the cryptic "Dear Head on the Wall" (co-written by poet and wife Kim Christoff), which leans on a agitated-sounding string section. Escovedo has a lot of character as a vocalist, but he doesn't have terrific range and is slightly overestimated as a lyricist, both of which hinder his dramatic impact at times. Cale does his part by cranking up the noir and still returning to a happy center like the pretty but bland "Looking For Love." Escovedo shows himself plenty capable of vulnerability on the aching singalong "I Died a Little Today," and it's one of the several intersections on The Boxing Mirror where it's impossible to separate the back story from the song.

Musically, Escovedo is quite versatile, and never stands in the same place for long. Stately ruminations like the title track, built around a simple martial beat and some dignified tickling of the ivories, stand side-by-side with generously layered rock-dance parties like "Take Your Place." There are some politely fiery guitar sections throughout, appropriately for a man who got his start in punk-influenced outfits nearly three decades ago. His old bandmate Graham gets to unleash a few times, providing tunes like "Notes On Air" with an adrenaline shot. "Break This Time" and the tense "Sacramento & Polk" crank up the volume, too, sounding like an extremely accomplished bar band. Fickle listeners hoping for home run singles may be underwhelmed, but for those who scour the plains of desert Americana and the pages of Paste magazine, contemporary albums don't get much better. - Adam McKibbin, The Red Alert

The Boxing Mirror is Alejandro Escovedo's first album in four years. On it he stands at the crossroads of his own life's work. Escovedo has always kept his music balanced on a fine line: on one side is his trademark elegant, poetic brand of sophisticated pop, and on the other is an original, tough, savvy rock & roll that encompasses not only grit but texture and dynamic while keeping its eyes on the street. On The Boxing Mirror, Escovedo and producer John Cale erase the line: rock, pop, country, Tejano, and other folk forms are woven into a rich, colorful fabric without regard for classification. His studio band is the finest he's ever assembled, and it includes guitarist Jon Dee Graham, violinist Susan Voelz, cellist Brian Standefer, primary bassist Mark Andes, drummer Hector Muñoz , Bruce Salmon on keyboards, accordionist Otoño Lujan, and guitarist David Polkingham. If ever there were an album to introduce new listeners to Escovedo's music, it's The Boxing Mirror. This one has to do it. It's rich, lush, and full of small silences and roars. The rocker "Break This Time" is a straight-out guitar scream that could have been performed by Escovedo's former band, the True Believers--if they had strings. They add to the bottom in this poignant track, as the guitars wail and shuffle with garage rock abandon and a smoking, wildly distorted six-string solo played by Graham (an amazingly gifted songwriter in his own right). Graham plays another one, as does Cale, in the album's final rock freakout, "One True Love" (written with Chris Stamey during the Man Under the Influence sessions), which closes the set. Yet this is hardly the whole story -- in fact, it's not even the beginning. Escovedo's sense of drama is in place on every track here, such as the album's moody opener, "Arizona." Keyboards open it with strange, displaced sounds that are quickly picked up by the strings and bassline. He sings "Have another drink on me/I've been empty since Arizona/I turned my back on me/And I faced the face I thought I was...." His lyric articulation in this noir-ish desert expressionist tale digs right into the middle of the instrumentation, which folds him in.

The tempo picks up on "Dear Head on the Wall," written with poet and Bulgarian refugee cum Texas resident Kim Christoff -- who also co-wrote the title cut and "Notes on Air" with Standefer and others (the only track Escovedo didn't write or co-write). The cello is the driving instrument on "Dear Head on the Wall," and Voelz's violin fills the space between sung lines as the drums pump the entire thing into a gorgeous if deeply melancholy orchestral pop tune. The aforementioned darkly surreal "Notes on Air" is introduced by electric guitar, and it guides a midtempo country-rock tune whose dynamics are the most shattering on the entire album. The mood picks up in the pop/rocker "Looking for Love," a richly textured poignant observation on love that is offset by hooks and gorgeous harmony singing. On the latter half of the set, the beautiful and tender "Evita's Lullaby" weaves together acoustic guitars, strings, drums, and Escovedo's evocative lyrics sung in a voice that seems to be saying goodbye even as the words come up from his belly. "Sacramento & Polk" is another blazing, distorted caterwauling rocker that could have come from Detroit in the late '60s. The off-kilter, hooky guitar and strings pop in "Take Your Place," sounding like an update of something on the Buddha label from the early '70s -- but it has sharp teeth and a sense of warmth and humor missing from bubblegum records. The Boxing Mirror is the album Escovedo has been striving to make his entire career. It is a conglomeration of styles, arrangements, and surfaces he has used before, but here it not only gels, it compels. This is rock & roll of an entirely different stripe. It's music that combines real-life poetry with a prismatic vision of life under the skin, in the place where the heart pumps real blood; emotions get tangled up in this mix and are expressed in unexpected, often uncomfortabe, ways. The Boxing Mirror reels and struts, waltzes, and falls down, but always gets back up again. Rock & roll music has been extended in the various articulations of these songs. In the 21st century, this is what singer/songwriter albums are supposed to sound like. The Boxing Mirror is brilliant, and it is his masterpiece. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide