Album Review: Mike Viola - Lurch

Being independent since 2005, Mike Viola's Lurch was available first as limited CD with only 1000 copies. It was also a free download directly from Mike for a short time to share it around the world.

The album combines wonderful harmonies and songwriting resulting in stupendously addictive songs.

Here is a short song-by-song review: The opening track is "Maybe, Maybe Not" - there's one line ("I put my heart into it") which is the key to the whole record.

"Girly Worm" - a love song for a girly worm. Having myself a girly worm around, I love it and its lyrics.

"All Bent Out of Shape" is very much Candy Butchers and leads straight to my first personal highlight, "The Strawberry Blonde". As soon as the intro starts I'm trapped in this song. Just perfect, it's a song you simply can't turn off or stop listening, and it just brightens up your mood. It's uptempo, with wonderful harmonies, multi-layered sound and chorus.

It's slowing it down with the heartfelt and nice ballad "Dangerously Close".

"279 East 10th Street". A song about moving. About an address. And a classic pop song.

"So Much Better" is another or maybe THE killer tune of the record. With a length of just 1:50 min, it's get stuck in your head (for me: it never left).

"Snowman in Tompkins Park" - a lovely ballad about hotel mood and yearning. I love the harmonies at "I can't wait to see you again". "When I Hold You in My Arms" - oh, a song with clapping along. Like it! "Good Ideas Grow On Trees" - the official album closes with this truly beautiful ballad (there is a beautiful video, too).

And now for the bonus: Buying the Japanese CD or the vinyl, you get three bonus songs. While bonus songs often having a B-side touch, these are the exact opposite. Many artists would create a whole record with these as key tracks: "Find Somebody To Love", "Something Electric" and "Motel Mood". So sad only few people are able to listen to them.

Final remark: There is only one bad thing about this album: it's too short! You can't resist to this record. You'll find yorself to start it all over again after the last song.
You won't find even one filler song there. Lurch is one of my top three records of all time.

You can buy Lurch digital, on CD and and if you're extremely lucky on vinyl (vinyl includes also a mp3 download and the bonus disc).