Search - Chris Pureka :: Chimera

Chimera by Chris Pureka

The Captain | Bridgewater, MA | 05/06/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Sometimes all it takes is an acoustic guitar and a powerful set of vocals. In a day and age where often times studios might try to distort the brilliance of a natural musician with sounds that a technician might think lend more to the quality of an album, it is refreshing when you can find a musician that is willing to release something that is a return to quality music in its purest sense.



Chris Pureka is a skilled Western Massachusetts musician that thankfully allows the listener a glimpse into the emotion and passion that she puts into her music when it is performed. It is clearly evident when listening to any of Pureka's works that the music that she performs is meant to highlight exactly what she hopes for the music to be. It is genuine and it is real and the end product for the listener is a quality sound that impresses each time.



With a short album released by Pureka entitled Chimera, an individual looking to gain an appreciation for the music of Pureka can quickly learn what the music is all about. The album, though brief, provides the listener with a jam packed quality sampling of songs that is both of high quality and is enjoyable to listen to.



The album is created in a musical snippet style since there are live tracks, original tracks and a cover song all gracing the album. Chimera can sort of serve almost as a musical biography as to what the musical mindset of Chris Pureka is and perhaps why what falls onto this album is in fact a glimpse into what the music of Pureka is all about.



Take for instance the track California. There is a simplistic genius to this track because Pureka allows the acoustic guitar playing and her vocals to really take hold on this track. There is nothing fancy about the track; rather, the music on this track is unadulterated yet stands apart from so much else out there because the musical talent of Pureka is so clearly heard. There is a deep and dark vocal performance on the track that certainly is the modus operandi for Pureka's vocals within her music and the guitar playing on this track serves sort of as a backing to what the vocals are capable of. The pairing of the two truly make for a beautifully sounding song.



Come Back Home on this album is a live recording that Pureka performed in Dublin, Ireland and features Peter Mulvey on the track as well. Even though this is a live performance, the sound quality is remarkable and the transition onto the album is nicely done. Mulvey accompanies Pureka through lending some backup vocals on the track. Within the album jacket Pureka notes that Mulvey is one of her favorite songwriters and it is nice to see that the pairing of the two artists melded together nicely in this live performance. The vocals really jump out at the listener on this track and perhaps this track better than any other on the album truly exhibits the capabilities of Pureka's voice.



A nice cover of Bob Dylan's Wagon Wheel also makes its way onto Chimera and it is perhaps one of the better placed cover songs on an album that I have heard in quite some time. What is interesting about this track is that the lyrics almost work better with Pureka's style than Pureka's style works with the lyrics. It is as if Dylan had hoped that one day Chris Pureka would pick this song to cover because the lyrics lend perfectly to the musical style of Pureka and if one did not know that the song was written by Dylan one might have just assumed that this is an original song by Pureka. Though the pace of this track is a bit more upbeat and uptempo than the rest of the album, this cover song is a true winner and is the ideal way to close out the album.



Track listing:



*1. California (Prelude)

*2. California

*3. Hold it Together

*4. 31 and Falling

*5. Come Back Home

*6. Swann Song

*7. Wagon Wheel



Not every musician is going to grow into a household name and really that probably should not be the best barometer when it comes to music. What Chris Pureka has been able to instill in listeners with a short album entitled Chimera is that high quality music can come in all shapes and sizes and that often times it might be musicians that tend to fly under the radar a bit that in fact create some of the highest quality music that is out there. Chimera is an amazing little album and is one that is certainly worthy of listening to.



Chimera is on the Sad Rabbit Music record label. For more information about Chris Pureka, check out his website at http://www.chrispureka.com/."