Kenton Hall is on Speed. Not the drug, the movie. If he were to ever rest, he might perish. Kenton Hall & The Necessary Measures are the necessary measures he has taken to stay alive. We mustn’t have a problem with this, as long as he’s giving us lasting, beautiful music. You’ve heard of double albums. This is pretty much his discography, Idiopath.
He is James Taylor sometimes, and sometimes The Rolling Stones. I’m sorry, you’ll have to track his world of music like me as you listen. More than a story, he iterates on how it is told. There is a framework, compounded with the download of his ideas. If you are living your life moment by moment, he is doing it song by song. For example, in the first 4-5 tracks, you might traverse through 2 decades of musical genre progress. Some tracks are piano ballads, some pop swings, and many just musings through this art.
In some parts, you’ll hear him experiment with new sounds. Kenton Hall & The Necessary Measures are sonic scientists, and they have the vigour and energy of a college nerd. A song like It’s Not Over Yet has a mysterious undertone to it. Not compared to anything, because that will be a whole other world. You even see him hop a bluesy train for a Van Morrisson-Clapton kind of sound as well with I Wish I Had A City. If spontaneity is something you root for and vie for, there is no doubt that Kenton Hall is going to tick all the boxes.
However, have patience as he shuffles through his favourite genres. Don’t search for flow, but I promise you that you won’t hear the quality drop. If he has dropped 36 tracks here, trust me when I tell you that he might have written a 100. Or he’s a musical genius like Dylan and we have a treasure amongst us. Dumb as a Brick might give you Leonard Cohen vibes, but it runs deeper in ways. It’s a nice closer to one of the 3 albums.
Like a proclamation
He kicks it into more of a blues rock vibe with the opening track of the 2nd, That’s More Like It. The turns he takes, he explores. As he is in this residency, he might choose to stay a week or maybe even a month. With I Like You Best, he brings out the Costello fan in him. He might unexpectedly even traverse into a New Wave/Industrial rock sound with Don’t Take My Picture as well. There is no telling where you go, especially when you enter a bus without a location board.
The Beatles return to his fingers with songs like Charlotte and I Think You Would Have Liked It Here. It is near perfect to put the latter as the last track of the album. I really think you did like it here. With a riff that sounds like a tip of the hat to Low Rider by War, we proceed into Act III. You proceed into more secrets, masterfully written as if just for you. The Velvet Underground kind of sound frequents more in this act, and the drama is just as entertaining. It might be easy to listen to his album, but my hearty congratulations if you made it to the end of this article.
Kenton Hall & The Necessary Measures condense everything the living generation likes about live music. From eras, they come together. They perform, and they steal the show. This triple album is nothing less than fantastic. Follow them and listen to it above!
I’d like to see this on a biographical, life scaled film like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button or Boyhood. Or they might have to make a movie about Kenton Hall
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