Description
Curtis Salgado’s Damage Control is 50s-inspired rock and roll, his sumptuous voice defining the album, which joins soul and rhythm and blues to the piano-driven music of another era.
Salgado isn’t doing a purely throwback album, though. There are more contemporary touches, plus cracker crisp production, that place this album in the current century. But the overall sensibility of Damage Control is a classic sound.
Salgado does leave the 50s, though. One of the album’s best tracks is “Truth Be Told,” a zydeco tune featuring Wayne Toups’ vocals and accordion. The track has a fun, wild groove and while it never becomes ragged or untidy, it’s got a rocking lilt that almost threatens to spin the song into chaos. It helps that Toups has a rawer voice than Salgado. Despite that, it meshes seamlessly with Salgado’s more refined vocals. “Hail Mighty Caesar” is jazz, swirls of horns and organs making you feel like you’re at a New Orleans parade or funeral. Both tracks share a looseness.
Salgado’s a solid songwriter and great singer. It’s what you’d expect from someone with his resume; Damage Control is his eleventh album. Salgado knows how to make a record. But while there’s a cohesive sound, the detours into New Orleans jazz and zydeco are the album’s best and most exciting moments. Perhaps it’s the thrill of a course deviation. But Salgado knows 50s rock and roll and Damage Control is a master class in the style.
