Album Review: Michael Fracasso 'Here Come The Savages'

Austin’s Michael Fracasso delves into pop crooner territory with his latest album, Here Come The Savages, which was released on June 10th. A mix of heavenly folk-pop (and a little rock/psychedelia added in for good measure) Here Come The Savages’ thirteen tracks include originals, as well as decidedly unique takes on half a dozen covers from Brian Wilson’s “Caroline, No” to The Rascal’s “How Can I Be Sure?”

While sonically reminiscent of Brett Harris’s Up In The Air, Fracasso’s album is centered around a different thematic one – that of a break-up, specifically his own divorce. Beginning with the delicate opener “Say,” which proclaims his freedom from her ability to negatively affect him (and quotes a line from The Beatles “All You Need Is Love”), and continuing on “Open,” where he manifests his openness to love even as his relationship crumbles, “I’ll keep an open mind”, Fracosso’s tenor conveys melancholy, regret, heartache and resolve in emotional songs that will affect anyone who has recently experienced the same.

While the subject matter remains relatively constant, Fracasso changes up the instrumentation throughout, incorporating bits of pedal steel, banjo - even some French horn - and piano, which notably appears on the touching rendition of “You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory” before closing out the album on a hopeful note (for both parties) on The Kinks “Better Things.”

No matter how you slice it, the dissolution of a relationship is always hard, but listening to Fracasso’s Here Comes The Savages you'll get the sense that you’re not alone and that eventually, you too, will move onto better things. 

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