Description
The Painted Desert is an album by the American singer, songwriter, and producer Andrew Osenga of The Normals and Caedmon’s Call fame, Kickstarter-funded and independently released by Osenga on House of Mirrors Music in October 2018.
Now fully established as a solo artist following tenures with the Normals and Caedmon’s Call, acclaimed US singer/songwriter Andrew Osenga’s latest offering see him continue to cement his position as a purveyor of intimate songs that reach deep into the heart. Previously released as a series of singles, each song plays its part in forming an album that carries the theme of pain and sorrow tempered by the hope of restoration through Christ. For instance, tracks like the sublime «The Year Of The Locust» carries an obvious restorative biblical theme whilst the candid «Still Waters» cries out to God with quiet passion. Elsewhere, a song like the achingly poignant «Beautiful Places» – full of talk about scattering ashes and spending life insurance money – may sound maudlin in less experienced hands and it’s a testimony to Osenga’s skills of engagement that he can maintain the general downbeat feel of the album without it ever becoming overbearing. Of course, this has a lot to do with the overall sound and Osenga’s whispery vocals descend like a mist on a landscape of ambient sounds and gentle finger-picked acoustic guitar – the kind you’d hear on Simon & Garfunkel recordings – to create an ethereal soundscape that stirs, soothes and captivates in equal measure. Arguably the stand out track, the inspired «Cary (Where Were You)» reverently questions God’s whereabouts during some pretty hard times before Osenga ends the song with a wordless abstract coda containing feedback, discord and mild cacophony as if God himself were responding through the thunder to the singer’s psalm-like pleas. An intelligent and stunning addition to the already eminent Osenga back catalogue. [Lins Honeyman, Cross Rhythms, February 2019]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-painted-desert/1681172400)
CD tracklist:
01. Beautiful Places – 3:37
02. The Year of the Locust – 5:11
03. Worry – 3:02
04. Marjorie – 3:56
05. Cary (Where Were You) – 2:52
06. Still Waters – 4:09
07. New Year’s Daybreak – 2:01
08. The Rain – 2:40
09. My Bittersweet Old Friend – 4:22
10. Mercy – 4:05
11. Give Up – 5:27
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