Reviewed by Harry Kaplan
I know people are sort of lukewarm on comparisons. Maybe as a reviewer, it is a bit of a cop out. It is easier to compare an artist to someone else rather than write specifically about that artist’s music. Well, call me a cop out. My skin is thick enough to handle it. In this instance I hear some real similarities between Silver Tears by Aaron Lee Tasjan and artists like Harry Nilsson, George Harrison, and ELO. That is not a bad thing at all. It just seems that Tasjan has taken some elements from those artists and fused their styles into his own. I am not one to mess with success and this album is great. Actually, I am listening to track 3 (Memphis Rain) and this sounds a bit like a Roy Orbison tune. What the hell, let’s just include all of the Travelling Wilburys. I just need a Petty and Dylan tune to complete the circle. All kidding aside, Memphis Rain, is a beautiful ballad somewhere between country and rock, with the right mix of both.
This album in general is a healthy balanced attack of both country and rock in the perfect proportions. All of the songs are expertly written, sung, and produced to create an album that could be considered a light rock masterpiece with similar stature as that of The Travelling Wilburys. The intros, outros and hooks are so good that it seems like they were crafted in some evil music laboratory somewhere. I doubt that is the case. It is just a credit to Aaron Lee Tasjan’s genius as a musician and song crafter. This Ohio born musician is like a sponge and has the ability to absorb many styles of music and wring the sponge to create one stream of liquid. This is a serious release and should be talked about for years to come.