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Alejandro Escovedo
The Boxing Mirror
(Back Porch)
First Appeared in The Music Box, May 2006, Volume 13, #5
Written by John Metzger
Viewed strictly from a sonic perspective, the union of songwriter Alejandro
Escovedo with producer John Cale is a match made in Heaven. In fact, their
collaboration on The Boxing Mirror is so well-balanced and complementary
that anyone familiar with the work of either artist can identify, with the
utmost precision, the seam at which their visions come together as one.
Throughout the set, Cale suitably surrounds Escovedo’s melange of folk, blues,
and punk with an array of emotion-enhancing effects that enliven the
disorienting chaos of transient living outlined on Sacramento & Polk,
exude a bittersweet ache on the reflective I Died a Little Today, and
cast a spectral shadow across Arizona’s tale of death and rebirth.
In the five years that have passed since he released his career-defining
outing A Man under the Influence, Escovedo defied death, lost his father,
found sobriety, got married, and started a family. Not surprisingly, all of
these experiences permeate The Boxing Mirror and fill it with conflict.
The title track itself refers to the one’s internal struggles, while the album
as a whole oscillates between images of life and death, reality and illusion,
inebriation and abstinence. The problem, however, is that Escovedo tried to
distill the essence of these pivotal moments into a single endeavor, and
although his attempt is valiantly ambitious (and almost succeeds), the
collection’s thematic arc can’t help but to feel somewhat jumbled and
disjointed. Even so, many of The Boxing Mirror’s songs — from the
elegantly mournful Evita’s Lullaby to the unnerving spasms of Deerhead
on the Wall — rank among his very best.  ½
The Boxing Mirror is
available from Amazon.com.
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2006 The Music Box
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