But this is Josh Rouse, a man whose best songs are well arranged and well written, and one outta two just isn't up to snuff. Josh Rouse and the Long Vacations Scores.
The arrangements are stunning, too, with simple touches of bossa nova, jazz, and Latin pop laced throughout. Fortunately, any album by Josh Rouse still has its share of scattered highlights, even an album as spotty as Long Vacations, and "Oh, Look What the Sun Did!" shines as one the few moments where Rouse conjures up a sunny, chilled-out vibe without forgetting to anchor things with some sort of memorable hook. These songs never hit their mark as a result, aiming for the relaxed pitch of an afternoon siesta and often sounding closer to a snoozefest instead. Josh Rouse and The Long Vacations Josh Rouse and The Long Vacations (Special Edition) Description. After all these years overseas, he still comes across like a guy from the Midwest, no matter how hard he strums his flamenco guitar. Bluebird St stats on tours Late Night Conversation June 2012 to 1 / 1 concerts. He's played the role of "world music crooner" a few times since moving to the country in 2006 - on El Turista, he even sang a few songs in Spanish - but Long Vacations marks the spot where Rouse's ex-pat schtick runs out of steam. Josh Rouse and the Long Vacations Released Nov 26, 2021. Things aren't quite as energetic on Josh Rouse and the Long Vacations, where he settles more firmly into the Latin grooves and Mediterranean melodies of his adopted Spain. He jumped between genres, too, adopting a 1970s singer/songwriter stance one minute and exploring lush pop/rock the next. I wanted to write something that folks hadn't heard before, something they could listen to year round.Early in his career, Josh Rouse moved from state to state every few years, channeling the things he saw in each location into albums like Nashville and Dressed Up Like Nebraska. I decided that if I was going to make a holiday record, I didn't want to load it up with sleigh bells and choirs and sing the same old standards that everybody else has already sung, says Rouse. The result is a holiday record built for the long haul, a wholesome, whip smart collection that's guaranteed to stay with you well after the snow has melted and all the decorations have come down.
The arrangements are eclectic and intoxicating, drawing equal influence from Rouse's Midwestern childhood and his decade and a half spent living in Spain, and the performances here are sparkling and fizzy to match, blending jazz sophistication with rootsy sincerity and sly crooner charm. Long Vacations isnt a bad album per se (Rouse is too gifted a songwriter to make a genuinely bad.
Nick in a suit and sunglasses there's a lonely ex pat waiting by the mailbox for cards that never seem to come. These songs never hit their mark as a result, aiming for the relaxed pitch of an afternoon siesta and often sounding closer to a snoozefest instead. Written off and on over the course of the last ten years, the record is joyful and festive of course, but, much like the holiday season itself, it's also laced with an undercurrent of longing and melancholy.įor every playful portrait of giddy lovers on New Year's Eve, there's a stranded traveler spending Christmas alone for every slick St. It makes sense, then, that The Holiday Sounds of Josh Rouse isn't your typical yuletide collection. Growing up, I remember hearing Vince Guaraldi and Bing Crosby and all the staples everybody listens to each winter, but I never collected Christmas music or anything like that. I was never a holiday record kind of guy, he laughs. Josh Rouse never planned on making a holiday record.