Echo Dancing

Decades after 1992s Gravity, the solo debut that let the world know Alejandro Escovedo was one of Americas great songwriters, the man has little if anything to prove, but he doesnt have to rest on his laurels. For 2024s Echo Dancing, Escovedo has taken a truly idiosyncratic look at his own songbook. He cut new, radically different versions of 14 songs from his back catalog. Reportedly, Escovedo had traveled to Italy to cut a set of fresh tunes with Don Antonio and Nicola Peruch, who collaborated with Escovedo on his 2018 album The Crossing, but at the last minute he came up with the idea of re-interpreting some of his older compositions instead, though fans can be excused for not recognizing all of Escovedos oldies. A few of these songs are genuinely obscure, but even the best-known tracks get a truly thorough reworking, with scratchy guitars, lo-fi keyboards, and vintage drum machines often dominating the arrangements, making much of this seem like Escovedos long-lost new wave or synth-punk LP. Tracks like "Sacramento & Polk" and "Wave" sound as if Escovedo, Antonio, and Peruch were aiming to be eccentric for its own sake (especially the former, which could pass as a B-side for the Normals "Warm Leatherette"), though the more spare and atmospheric tone of "Outside Your Door" and "Last to Know" (dominated by droning keyboards and minimal electronic drones, confirming Escovedos statement that Suicide was a major influence on him) fit the songs well while also casting them in a bold new light. The notion of Escovedo making a lo-fi junkshop electronic album sounds even more unlikely than him covering his own songs for a full album, and while Echo Dancing is uneven, the hits outnumber the misses by a margin that qualifies this as a successful experiment. That said, given how well he and his collaborators take to this approach, perhaps this would have been an even better LP if hed come up with a set of original songs purpose-built to these. Escovedo is a great interpreter, but hes an even better songwriter. ~ Mark Deming