''Red Cities'' is the 2002 debut solo album of American musician

Chris Brokaw Chris Brokaw (born August 1, 1964) is an American musician, best known for his work with the bands Come (American band), Come and Codeine (band), Codeine. Life and career While studying at Oberlin College, Brokaw met many people who became figu ...

, following the demise of his earlier band

Come Come may refer to: Places *Come, village of a Greek polis *Comè, a city and commune in Benin *Come (Tenos), an ancient town on Tenos island, Greece Music *Come (American band), an American indie rock band formed in 1990 *Come (UK band), a Britis ...

Background

Released in 2002 by 12xu and Kimchee Records, the album was recorded by Peter Weiss at Zippah Recording, in Brookline, MA, during January and March 2001. The idea for the album was originally conceived in 1998, the centerpiece of the entire project being "The Fields (Part II)". As Brokaw himself has stated, " e record just came to imas a whole" before the demise of his previous band, and Brokaw "didn’t want them to become Come songs — which is what most of issongs would have been at the time." After producing the first demos on an 8-track cassette recorder, Brokaw decided to attempt to undertake the project on his own. "The Look of Love" is a cover of

Burt Bacharach Burt Freeman Bacharach ( ; May 12, 1928 – February 8, 2023) was an American composer, songwriter, record producer, and pianist who is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential figures of 20th-century popular music. Start ...

's 1967 single.

Track listing

Personnel

–

guitars The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

and

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

;Additional personnel * Pete Weiss – Producer, Mixing * Peter Linnane – Assistant Engineer *

Paul Q. Kolderie Paul Q. Kolderie is an American record producer, engineer, and mixer. He has worked with Pixies, Radiohead, Orangutang, Hole, Dinosaur Jr., Juliana Hatfield, Wax, Warren Zevon, Uncle Tupelo, Throwing Muses, Morphine, the Mighty Mighty Bossto ...

– Mixing * David M. Curry –

Pre-production Pre-production is the process of planning some of the elements involved in a film, television show, play, video game, or other performance, as distinct from production and post-production. Pre-production ends when the planning ends and the co ...

* Andy Hong –

* Carl Plaster –

* Jeff Lipton –

Audio mastering Mastering is a form of audio post production which is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device called a master recording, the source from which all copies will ...

* Dan Zedek – Cover Design * Maxi del Campo –

Photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

* Milo Jones –

Arrangements In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing Composition (music), composition. Differences from the original composition may include Harmony (music), reharmonization, Musical phrasing, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or M ...

on "The Look of Love" (with Chris Brokaw)

Critical reception

Time Out New York ''Time Out'' is a global magazine published by Time Out Group. ''Time Out'' started as a London-only publication in 1968 and has expanded its editorial recommendations to 333 cities in 59 countries worldwide. In 2012, the London edition became ...

referred to ''Red Cities'' as "an evocative set of instrumentals," and elsewhere, "an enthralling spread of guitar-and-percussion instrumentals that have as much emotional power as -and greater range than- any of his previous outings."

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

's praiseful review of ''Red Cities follow-up ''Wandering as Water'' referred to both albums as "largely vocal offering creep ngalong an unadorned path towards anachronistic purity." In his positive review of the album for

Hot Press ''Hot Press'' is a monthly music and politics magazine based in Dublin, Ireland, founded in June 1977. The magazine has been edited since its inception by Niall Stokes. History ''Hot Press'' was founded in June 1977 by Niall Stokes, who cont ...

magazine, Colin Carberry stated that "some of the tracks on Red Cities are so vividly redolent of a sense of place, it could almost be the soundtrack for a series of imaginary J.G Ballard travelogues." Likewise, Roman Sokal, writing for

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly ''Exclaim!'' print magazine publishes seven ...

magazine, asserts that " ere is absolutely no hint of pretension within the album, just a stepped back assault of thoughtful and clever 'soundtrack' music for your aching soul."

References

{{Authority control Chris Brokaw albums Post-rock albums by American artists 2002 albums