Mullins, Shawn: Light You Up

Shawn Mullins: Light You Up - VINYL LP

Shawn Mullins SKU: 15251978
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Title:

Light You Up

Artist:

Shawn Mullins

Label:

Vanguard Records

Product Type:

VINYL LP

UPC:

015707811217

Genre:

Alt-Country & Americana

Release Date:

2010-10-12

Number of Discs:

2

The album opens with the devastating one-two punch of the cinematic California-which instantly takes it's place alongside such latter-day Cali classics as Tom Petty's Free Fallin', David & David's Welcome to the Boomtown, Beck's Earthquake Weather and Mullins' own chart-topper Lullaby-and the smoldering, zeitgeist-capturing title track. In terms of their dramatic payloads, these two songs are of a piece, delving into the tattered yet resilient heart of the American Dream. The California setting, to which Mullins returns on Tinseltown, functions as a microcosm of our collective journey from wide-eyed innocence through bitter experience to the possibility of personal and collective renewal. The thematic thread runs seamlessly into Light You Up, with it's unsettling spoken verses-Everybody wants the real deal/Everybody wants to cop a good feel/Everybody wants more money/Everybody wants a taste of your honey-and intense choruses, as scorching as the San Fernando Valley in August, as Mullins reaches upward to break into his thrilling falsetto: I just want to light you up/Light you up like a fire/I just want to turn you on/Turn you on and take you higher. Here, as elsewhere, a deeper perspective is embedded in the song's bridge, as Mullins sings, Yeah this old world can bring you down/Turn your smile into a frown/Break your heart and make you sad/Drive you stark raving mad. Finally, the narrative drops away as the band launches into a surging extended rave-up, further deepening the song's emotional resonance.

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