Angel Blossom 2025
Sky Blue
Californian artist’s past, present and future get taken to celestial heights to glisten amidst the clouds.
The refrain from Dylan’s “My Back Pages” in the foldout of “Sky Blue” serves as a great reference of the mindset the San Franciscan has been applying to his restless search of perfection for years now. It may seem easy to surmise Michael Vincent’s songs are too precious to be left alone in the original form and allow him to move on, instead of adding only a few fresh cuts to recent albums and filling the rest of space with remixes and new recordings of pieces familiar to the listeners from his previous platters, yet that’s not exactly the case. Yes, following the path paved by "Electric Fox" and a couple of earlier offerings, some of the ten track here emerge from the performer’s past, but they create a different context – different enough to gel into a captivating concept.
And there is a concept, as suggested by the catchy “C’mon, C’mon!” which starts “Sky Blue” and brings it to a close in two rather distinct ways, the opener a rumblingly crunchy call-to-action and the finale a psychedelia-tinctured, groovy pop number, both finding Vincent drawl the consonants of “together” in an alluring manner – and push it even farther on the enhanced variant of the rambunctiously ruminative “Together” a little later down the line. Michael may rock on “Fool, My Eye” and “The Longest Time” – glimmered-up and more tangible than ever before – but he also goes for a the Bo Diddley beat on “Rain Downtown” where vocals reign on choruses in the absence of actual drums which punctuate the choruses, and pulls on acoustic textures to render “Nightlights” magical… and turn it into a chamber rave. However, “Of The Promises” exposes his vulnerability via the wonders of serenade, thus rounding off the artist’s image and adding what must be the missing element needed to make “Sky Blue” almost perfect.
Looks like Michael Vincent’s quest is about to reach its logical conclusion.
****
