Local Record Review: 'Four Steps in Corsets' by Yellow Red Sparks



Yellow Red Sparks


Four Steps in Corsets


ORG Music
www.yellowredsparks.com

The pure poetry of singer-songwriter Josh Hanson is accentuated by tightly interwoven arrangements on Four Steps in Corsets, the debut EP from OC's premiere indie folk-rockers Yellow Red Sparks. Released by ORG Music, the reflective, melancholic tone of heartache throughout the album makes for a compelling listen. A trio of accomplished musicians with Goldy (drums/vocals) and Sara Lynn (upright bass, piano, vocals, banjo) accompanying Hanson, Yellow Red Sparks find all the right melodies and rhythms on all of the songs. A stripped down soul emerges from intricate musical tapestries.
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Four Steps in Corsets is acoustic at its core and starts off strumming on “My Machine Gun.” The chorus ups the rock ante before a guitar solo slinks down into upright bass groove with clackety drums as Hanson sings, “Bonnie don't you worry about me though / I've never been free / No not really.”

It's on “Monsters with Misdemeanors,” though, where he's at his lyrical best. Backed by stringed instruments, Hanson brings the song to a close lamenting, “You have lovely eyes and a lovely face / A cold embrace / You have lovely eyes and a lovely faith / A cold embrace” after comparing an ending relationship to a falling Rome.

It's impossible not to be drawn into the music of Yellow Red Sparks when they're this good. It helps when the trio enlisted Grammy award-winning talents in mixing and mastering the effort. Three songs off of Four Steps in Corsets are previews of what a forthcoming full-length debut from the band produced by Ted Hutt will sound like.

For now, the EP, available on iTunes and Amazon, is likely to strike a chord with new listeners, please longtime fans, and may even make its way down to Mexico City where Hanson has performed with members of Enjambre, Andrea Balency Trio and Torreblanca while also appearing on Balcony TV twice while there.

Chispas Rojas y Amarillas!

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