RIC GORDON - Standing Here

5 songs
18:23 minutes
***** **
Russian Winter

Bandpage

When most people think about retiring, American singer/songwriter Ric Gordon seems to get things really going. In Spring this year, he re-released his very first EP from the late Seventies, and what a great rediscovery that was. Then in Summer, he followed up with his five track EP Despair’s Lover which offered his take on post punk, yet another really charming release. Autumn’s here now, and once again Mr. Gordon is back with his third and probably last EP for this year. Standing Here sees him from a mellower side, and I guess that’s where is feeling most at ease, considering that he is often performing as a street musician.

On his new EP, Ric Gordon offers five tracks that are located somewhere between singer/songwriter, indie folk and Americana, which might be trivial when done by lesser artists, but his influences from the Seventies and the Eighties – I am guessting Big Star and The Dream Syndicate – make sure that we don’t get some plastic product that only tries to imitate the masters, but that actually recalls the innocence and simplicity of that era. Take for instance the opener I Will Always Be Here which is a pretty straightforward indie folk song with not much variety but enough heartfelt emotions that you will find yourself humming along to it rather sooner than later. When We Kiss follows in a similar direction, with the melancholic vocals underlined by acoustic guitars, bass guitar and drums. Although the first two songs are considered the EP’s singles, I prefer To Hear You Say which reminds me a little of the geek folk sounds of The Proclaimers. Rise Above is quite nice too but maybe a little on the long side, and I don’t like the up-down-up-down bass line very much. The EP ends with its title track, and it’s here where I find the major complaint that although the songwriting, although simple, is rather on the point, the instrumentation feels too same throughout the EP, so that the EP starts losing suspense in its second half.

Maybe one should compile Standing Here with its predecessor Despair’s Lover, to get a thirty-five-minute varied set of indie folk, post punk, Americana and a lot more. And still it is fun to listen again and again to Ric Gordon’s music, be it his more rocking or his more sedate material. His music always has this naked honesty that will move you more than any over-produced copycat.