ALBUM REVIEW: Jimmy Gnecco – The Heart (X Edition)
Published on November 27, 2011 by Dave Sutton · No Comments
After releasing three albums with his band Ours, Jimmy Gnecco released his first solo album, The Heart, in 2010. It was a mostly mellow and acoustic offering, which helped to give it a different feel from the albums he’d previously made with Ours. The Heart consisted of fifteen tracks, an hour in length, and featured some of Gnecco’s strongest material to date, making it, in my opinion, one of the best albums of last year.
So, the following year and we have a new release from Gnecco. Not a second album as such, but a re-working of his first solo album, this time under the moniker The Heart (X Edition).
In a recent statement on his website, Gnecco said, “My original vision of The Heart was to make a record that felt like a warm, quiet, companion to people. It wasn’t meant to be an epic production that we tried to get played on the radio, nor did I have hopes that it would make a huge impact on pop culture. It was just meant to move people one at a time on their own schedule in life.” It’s fair to say he succeeded and the album is warm and peaceful but full of emotion.
Gnecco went on to say: “As I went out and played the record, I found myself immediately missing the band and the sound of bombastic drums and screaming guitars. It became clear to me that I needed to revisit these songs as soon as I could and create the feeling that we were all experiencing on stage. This new version of The Heart X is exactly that. Exciting, more lush productions of these songs.” Here, he hasn’t succeeded.
Now, it’s not to say the songs on The Heart (X Edition) are bad. They’re just as good as on the original release. But herein lies the problem. Most of the re-worked songs don’t sound much different at all from the original versions (in fact, I’m not even sure a couple of them were re-recorded at all).
These Are My Hands maybe stands out as being most different from its original form and there are a couple of others, such as the title track, where the bass and drums are more prevalent, but they’re minor changes which just leaves the question… why bother? Where are the “bombastic drums” and “screaming guitars” he was going to add to these songs? Maybe it’s fair to say that the production (at times) is a little more lush, maybe there is slightly more of a band feel here… but it rarely feels enough to justify the time taken to re-record the songs or the money it would cost to buy this “new” album.
The Heart (X Edition)’s main redeeming feature comes in the form of the one brand new track called Bells. This is an excellent new song which maybe indicates the sound we could expect from Gnecco’s next album, whether that will be solo or a new Ours record.
So, it’s hard to know whether or not to recommend this album. On the one hand, it’s an excellent release, full of great songs. On the other hand, if you already own The Heart, most of the new versions will probably feel underwhelming simply because you have to listen so hard to hear what’s changed (maybe he’s leading up to some kind of spot-the-difference competition?), so this release seems superfluous. If you don’t own the original then, to be honest, that is still probably the one I’d recommend – it’s longer, it has more songs and ultimately I find it a slightly more satisfying experience. But having said that, other than missing a few great songs, The Heart (X Edition) nevertheless is a very strong release… just as it will be if he releases it for a third time.
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