Description
Brand New Ache is an album by the American singer and songwriter Chris Taylor of Love Coma fame, self-released on Eternal Gypsy Music in 2001. The album was recorded April through August 2001 by Tony Franckowiak at Cactus Country Studios in San Antonio, Texas; with Chris Taylor producing. Mixed by Franckowiak and Taylor. All songs written by Chris Taylor. The album was the April 2002 Album Pick of the Month at The Phantom Tollbooth.
Texas based Chris Taylor takes a side step away from the contemporary Christian music industry and his contract with Rhythm House Records to bring out an independent album that reveals him to be getting better all the time. These are the songs of a man whose obvious maturity has come at some cost. He writes on the cover, “my life took a downward spiral… suffered through a break up, lots of chaos around my world. I felt things I’ve never felt before. New doubts, new frustrations, new strengths, new found weakness, new anger, new mercies, new grace and brand new ache.” It is not the stuff of CCM albums. He goes on, “It’s the inside of my head, the belly of my heart, the walls of my soul.”
And so it is. Taylor has always been almost too articulate for CCM with that flair for the lyrical surprise that tumbles and turns words for maximum effect. The effect here has never been so raw and bloody. To a sound that sits somewhere between Mellencamp’s acoustic mid American blue collar drive and Karl Wallinger’s pop rock, Taylor twists truths to open up new vistas of meaning and experience. Indeed «Devil and the Deep Blue Sea» is almost pure World Party and there is a whispered word in the preceding track «Ain’t Life Sweet» that has you doing a double take as to whether Wallinger’s old cohort Mike Scott has joined the band.
To get back to the words, in the all too brief, opener «Where to Begin?» The crux of the tale is laid before us as the words of Jesus are turned inside out – “I’m a nowhere man/ Since the day the truth set you free.” It won’t be the last time that the Beatles get a quote, the albums best track «Supreme» being about “All you need is love” but reckoning it has to be more than a word, but where the albums scene is set is in that downside of the truth, setting a partner free but leaving a trail of blood on the tracks as she leaves. It is that blood on these tracks that makes this album stand out in that CCM filed where Taylor has made his name. Brave and bold something beautiful out of such a deep and painful ache. [Steve Stockman, The Phantom Tollbooth, 2002]
> iTunes
CD tracklist:
01. Where To Begin?
02. Supreme
03. One Of The Luckiest People In The World
04. Clear Blue Goodbye
05. Salvation
06. Underneath The Tree Of Stars
07. Ain’t Life Sweet?
08. Devil And The Deep Blue Sea
09. Swing Your Dress
10. The Last Time I Saw You
11. Brand New Ache
12. Here’s To The Losers…Bless Them All
Note: Remastered by Bruce Neher at Disc & Dat in 2019, and available at Bandcamp: https://christaylor.bandcamp.com/album/brand-new-ache-remastered
https://christaylor.bandcamp.com/album/brand-new-ache-2001
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