Apr

17

2007

Ola Podrida - Ola Podrida

Posted by luna6

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Artist : Ola Podrida
Album : Ola Podrida
Release Date : April 24, 2007
Label : Plug Research
Free Downloads : Instead
Rating : 8.0
Users Rating: 9 1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars6 Stars7 Stars8 Stars9 Stars10 Stars (1 votes)

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It’s been a while since I found a record I really liked based on Southwest Americana sounds. Happy to say that Ola Podrida’s debut album is one such album that does completely satisfy. The record is a gem that just gets more impressive with each listen. A little background bio of the band :

    Ola Podrida is the work of David Wingo, an Austin expat now residing in New York. He first gained recognition scoring the films of David Gordon Green (George Washington, All the Real Girls), which have become modern classics in the indie film community. His solo work captures the same beautiful Southern spirit and character of those cinematic masterpieces.

    David has since expanded Ola Podrida to include a full live band, including Andrew Kenny (American Analog Set), Robert Patton, and Matthew Frank. Their passionate live performances infuse the album’s more intimate tracks with a raw energy while still capturing their deeply personal sentiments.”

Opening track “The New Science” is just a gorgeous song. Vocals are whispered in a lullaby like manner, acoustic guitar lines immensely melodic, and there’s a rhythm section that just makes you want to sway along with the pretty melodies featured on that track. Up there with some of the best songs by Iron & Wine. “Jordannna” is a slower more lethargic track, yet when David Wingo cracks his falsetto voice there’s a feeling that jumps out and says “this isn’t your run of the mill folk band.” “Cindy” would be the standout track just because it goes a whole lot louder than the rest of the songs. The song has a sparse intro, but then builds up nicely with a full rock band sound. When the tempo picked up, the song did recall M. Ward’s “To Go Home” but played in a more dynamic manner. The ending of that song featured some unexpected fuzzed out guitars that I found awesome.

The second half of the album is more hit and miss, but it was expected since the first four songs were so impressive. A few songs lacked the luster of the rest (Day At The Beach & A Clouded View), yet with the help of some astute sequencing, the flow of the album never did get bogged down. “Lost And Found” is one of the more upbeat songs on the album, with a full acoustic band sound in play, while vocals lifts your spirits in a sing-a-long kind of way. “Pour Me Another” stands out as the sole piano ballad, which I found strangely appealing. Perhaps it was the minor keys of the piano, that brought to mind “Harriet Tubman” by Opal. The album closes out as sweetly as it began with “Eastbound,” featuring some Sufjan like banjo’s.

Ola Podrida is the kind of music that conjures up images of a calm evening, basking in the darkening rays of a dusk skyline, while sipping on a glass of bourbon. If you’re craving something intimate and warm, I can’t think of a better album from this year to play. This one made me pull out the old shoebox filled with photo’s from a road trip I had taken through the Southwest years ago. “Ola Podrida” certainly has the qualities that makes me believe the songs would age as gracefully as those photos have.


Ola Podrida

Track List :
01 The New Science
02 Jordanna
03 Instead
04 Cindy
05 Photo Booth
06 Run Off the Road
07 Day at the Beach
08 Lost and Found
09 A Clouded View
10 Pour Me Another
11 Eastbound

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