The songs of Blink were never meant to be shared. After being burned twice by tepid response to his recordings, Rick Elias worked behind-the-scenes in Christian music to support his family as a producer, writer, and side-man. Over the years, late at night, he'd create a little, just for himself. The result is a series of songs that might find a home in the roots rock or alternative country genres, or with any respectable group of singer/songwriters that aren't afraid of electric guitars. A rich bed of keyboard chords and Phil Madeira's loopy concertina, a host of guitars and backup singers subtly support Elias's world-weary, world-wise tenor crooning. This album returns to the grittiness of the first one, Rick Elias and the Confessions, but it's a more intentional, well-produced, carefully controlled grittiness, using the stronger production evident on his second album, Ten Confessions, to better effect. Like 6'4" Elias himself, Blink is an angular, ungainly collection of unpredictable numbers, very likeable despite their rough edges.
4 tocks
Other coverage for this album
The Lighthouse Unsorted 1998Reviewed by Ed RockI'd heard so much about Rick Elias from friends and other artists and had seen his name show in production credits for albums and film scores so much, that when I got the chance to review Blink, I jumped for it. I already knew I loved "God Inc.," which had been released as a part of the Prism magazine compilation, Demonstrations Of Love. While "God, Inc." may well be the most memorable of the ten…The Phantom Tollbooth 1997Reviewed by James StewartRick Elias's skills have been much in demand recently -- he wrote and recorded several of the songs on the soundtrack of Tom Hanks's That Thing You Do and produced, among others, Split Level's acclaimed new release glo.bal. Rick describes this album as "a collection of 'demos' of varying quality," and it is an interesting snapshot of his current focus as a solo musician. The instrumental duties…Similar sounding releases
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