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Eric Cannata – “Holding Onto The Holy” Review

Eric Cannata - “Holding Onto The Holy” Review

The Boy Who Cried Wolf wasn’t ignored by his peers because they were shocked about what he’d told them or because the message was unfamiliar. People who had heard him before had simply gotten no joy. Facing a disaster may have brought them together. But with so many false alarms and nothing to face for long, they just switched the dial off. 

Eric Cannata has been providing bad news, as well as messages of hope for a long time. He has a strategy for delivering this kind of information as well. These comuniques are usually wrapped in sun-soaked rays and friendly whispers.

On his first solo album, “Holding Onto The Holy,” there is more bad news than ever. But Cannata won’t let us down when it matters. The sunlight is still there even though there’s a storm just over the horizon. 

What makes you fall in love with a pop song you’ve just heard on the radio? It needs to sound like nothing you’ve ever heard, yet call back to things you’ve heard before and love. Eric Cannata blends the surprise with the familiar. 

Album opener “There You Go Again” is built on a jazzy arrangement and might just be a breakup song. But it is the singer’s soulful, pleasing vocals which truly sell it. The same can be said of the Donovan-like psych-pop of “It’s You.”

That’s not to say that the singer is not taking chances. As with his other projects, most famously Young the Giant, styles and genres blend together seamlessly. The risk is in creating such a kaleidoscope of influences. But the sweetness of the production and singing are the safety control. 

“Over and Over” shimmers like a piece of whimsical 60s pop-rock where the haze of the guitar riffs is blown over by the perfectly captured hook of the son. And “Fruit” is playful, experimental-pop with vocals delivered like a beatnik reciting over a groove in a Parisian cafe. 

But we did promise bad news earlier on. And we promised the musician would break them to us easily. “Losing Patience” may be one of the most relaxed tracks on the album and may even feature yawning sounds, but it’s a song about watching your mojo slip away with each passing day. “I Still Love You” is a tune about coming to terms and, eventually, accepting a partner’s faults.

But it’s the title track, “Holding Onto The Holy”, which gives the true measure of the album. Over a retro rock groove that skips like children playing jump rope, Cannata confesses to seeking hope in the innocence of the past. And while the singing is as smooth as always, this time, it sounds like he’ll need a bit of hope. Won’t we all?

Where does it all leave us? “The Wave,” possibly the most memorable song in the entire collection, is a smooth soul-pop number about the end of the world or, at least, some grand, terrifying disaster. Do you believe the man who has revealed so much about himself and the world around him for so long? 

It’s easy to enjoy Eric Cannata’s “Holding Onto The Holy.” It’s well produced and, perhaps, most importantly, brilliantly arranged and sung the whole way through. It’s certainly easier to enjoy such revealing material when the blow comes as softly as this one.

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About author

Eduard Banulescu is a writer, blogger, and musician. As a content writer, Eduard has contributed to numerous websites and publications, including FootballCoin, Play2Earn, BeIN Crypto, Business2Community, NapoliSerieA, Extra Time Talk, Nitrogen Sports, Bavarian FootballWorks, etc. He has written a book about Nirvana, hosts a music podcasts, and writes weekly content about some of the best, new and old, alternative musicians. Eduard also runs and acts as editor-in-chief of the alternative rock music website www.alt77.com. Mr. Banulescu is also a musician, having played and recorded in various bands and as a solo artist.
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