CR & the White Lights – “Greatest Hits”
Photo cred: Tyler Rooney
New Jersey’s CR & the White Lights debut on the blog with the melancholically uplifting “Greatest Hits.”
With “Greatest Hits,” it is impossible not to compare this to Neil Young, and that’s not a bad thing. The music has a loose majesty, a slightly ragged edge, a hint of desolation, and a rawness that brings to mind that period in the 1970s when Young arguably released some of his best material. But we can also draw comparisons to the shaggy, dishevelled rough diamonds cut by Dylan on Blood on the Tracks. Music that lives and dies on the strength of the songwriting, the feeling, and the performance. So, from reading this, you would expect Young’s stylistic hodgepodge of elements and we do have hints of country, a touch of folk and rock. Something sweet and buoyant, and something that is a slow-burning anthem.
“Greatest Hits” is built around jangling guitars, piano, the gentle chug of grittier electric guitar, and the understated push of the drums. Ebbing and flowing through its own story… a story that feels down-to-earth, direct, and inevitable… that’s before we get to the beautiful, vivid pedal steel guitar that spirals, sprawls, and glides across the composition, enriching its emotional weight.
Vocally, Neil Young is again the comparison you have to draw. The delivery has a soft, mindful, sorrowful quality, but it never sounds pathetic… exactly like Young. What I especially like is that the vocal carries this style into the chorus, where it lifts into what is a cigarette-lighter anthem. Swaying, vast, and universally triumphant. It lifts you up, and you cannot help but feel sentimentally hopeful. Even though the vocal itself remains largely the same, there is a lovely contrast there that the singer executes exceptionally well.
The song’s lyrics are brief and understated much like the music. Conveying memory, nostalgia, and a lasting emotional attachment to someone who remains ever-present in your thoughts despite time and change.
“Greatest Hits” is the equivalent of a slow exhale. Hushed and intimate but building into a cathartic release that lingers long after the final note. The track is taken from the album My Old Self releasing July 17th.
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