About This:
The scenario is familiar: Country singer/songwriter, after bowing to the dictates of Nashville and scoring major-label hits for a while, gives up the grind and records an independent-label album. Brady Seals was a country hitmaker as part of the multi-platinum group Little Texas in the early '90s and released two critically acclaimed country solo albums on Warner Bros. Records in 1997 and 1998. Thompson Street is a collection of tracks on which electric guitars and four/four beats rule in arrangements suggesting that the artist has spent a lot of time listening to pop/rock music of the mid-'60s. Often, Seals seems to be at one remove from his influences, as, for example, "Things Have Gotta Change" (co-written with Rodney Crowell) has a Tom Petty type sound. "That's How It Goes" (co-written with former Jellyfish leader Andy Sturmer) is reminisent of Harry Nilsson/ The Beatles. Over the derivative arrangements, Seals sings in a gruff voice of love gone wrong and love gone right, occasionally veering off into vaguely political ("Soon") or allegorical ("10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1") territory. The result is an engaging album of mainstream rock. Don't miss this one. It's a departure but really shows the depth of a true artist.