MIKE ERRICO
Pictures of the Big Vacation (WEA/SIRE)
Reviewed by Eric Steiner

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Mike Errico’s major label debut, Pictures of the Big Vacation, should help him break out of New York to a well-deserved national audience. His songs are wrought from excess with a string of unforgettable images. The alcohol-fueled emptiness of "7 Bottles of Bristol Cream" captures the essence of Malcolm Lowry’s Under the Volcano in a four minute rock song and "1,000 Miles" shifts gears looking at a coffee cup hanging by a Dumpster. Mike writes often about one of the many occupational hazards of a writer, alcohol, and like an uninvited drunken rage, it’s not pretty. "God" caught me offguard with its deceptive simplicity: "The story moves, and we turn the page, God is the part that does not change." "Round and Round" is not the Chuck Berry rocker, it’s a merry-go-round of life and death and about waiting to come back in his "gold capped teeth and Coup De Ville." The disc closes with two risks, "When She Walks By" and "Someday." These sparse tunes capture Mike Errico at his best, when he sings alone or just with an acoustic 6-string. Mike’s part of a new generation of folk rockers, like Richard Buckner, who aren’t afraid at revealing the worst that life can offer and respond with their best songwriting and playing.

Track List:

Tonight * Daylight * God * Round And Round * Springtime * Sooner Or Later * Bottles Of Bristol Cream * She Was * 1000 Miles * When She Walks By * Someday

© 1999 - Eric Steiner