Your unexpected new album of the year: Eddie Chacon - Pleasure, Joy and Happiness

https://light-in-the-attic.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/release_image/26350/image/large_550_tmp_2F1590777907988-c5sv2g4ty6a-081e7f0fe1f34a7619fa67c82edbbf18_2FEC_COVER.jpg

2020 is a very weird year. Beautiful new comeback album by Eddie Chacon, formely of Charles and Eddie. Gave me proper shivers up the spine on first listen. Intimate and sad and confessional as anything with Paul Buchanan's name on it. Serious late night vibes that'll make you think of Marvin's 'Here My Dear' or Smokey's 'Quiet Storm' but which also somehow feels very now through the weird trick of sounding like the year's hippest reissue - synths and drum machines all have that particular veneer as if they've been filtered through a Numero Group comp of hitherto undiscovered outsider soul. Light In The Attic have something to do with it I think, so that figures. Excellent backstory too, as told here to the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/sep/01/eddie-chacon-charles-and-eddie-comeback-album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAHOorwse-I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbSzJy4AYck

Okay those promo videos might me be a little bit too much, even for me. I guess if you wanted to be really mean about this you'd say it was like if Mick Hucknall had just discovered that Lewis album. But it feels a lot realer than that somehow, a record very much born out of lived experience (and also Eddie is obv not the odious choad that Mick Hucknall is)

this is a nice performance though, very barry mcguigan's uncle circa 1976 look:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAgdiE1AP3M

thanks for the discovery, that's very soulful late-night music.

I see from that article he used to play with Mike Bordin and Cliff Burton! I know the author of that piece a bit and aside from being a marvellous fella his hit rate with recommendations is pretty extraordinary. Anyway, sounds great; thanks for the heads-up.

i looove that performance and the song ("wicked world"). this is all very l.a. obviously but yeah there's a depth of feeling to this that's pretty arresting and disarming.

i don't think i'd heard "would i lie to you" since the 90s - great song, great video.

Mike Bordin and Cliff Burton

the undeniable thread connecting faith no more, metallica and "would i lie to you?"

very much a wtf awesome moment

love the DX7 woodwinds on "outside," this record is terrific

Yeah, 'outside' was the moment on the album where it really clicked for me. Magical song

This is magical, thank you very much!

Glad you like it! :)

I know the author of that piece a bit and aside from being a marvellous fella his hit rate with recommendations is pretty extraordinary

indeed! he shared a great spotify playlist a couple of months back which was songs made with a rhythm ace or rhythm king drum machine, so that has stuff on it like sly's 'family affair', timmy thomas's 'why can't we live together', 'crazy mama' by jj cale, all things with an incredible vibe over that lovely soft stuttering beat, and in a way that really was ideal prep for hearing this record

that sounds great - do you have a link for it?

yeah sure: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3uf6UUNJjl4HzdMTvI7u69?si=sWVga49yQbaFF5lVMoSGZA

cheers!

i am having a huge galaxy brain moment right now realizing that drum machine sound is from the same(ish) drum machine

i know right!! looking at one of the clips above, john carroll kirby is using a univox sr-55 which was also sold in the US as the korg mini pops 3 which is the exact same sort of vintage and timbral universe as the rhythm ace, but obv had different patterns on it that you could also combine together to give further options

probably going to burn out on this at some point but i think i've listened to it fifteen times now in the last three days

was NOT expecting microtones straight out of the gate

good album but maybe too emotionally intense for me rn? at least it's brief, more than half an hour of this shit could be seriously bad for your health

yeah it's in that turbid emotional zone that exists between being completely lost and finding yourself again

has the vibe, a little, of some of the softer songs off The Cure's The Top. that weird, sad psych-pop-soul vibe

and yeah, i think the short length works really well. no more really needs adding unless you're going to totally change the pace and that would risk destroying the mood of the rest of it

xp interesting comparison, i love those sad little cure songs where they break out the flute!

i like that comparison. last night i was trying to draw connections between this and the first junior boys record. maybe taking similar approaches to very different inspirations? or different approaches to similar.

I hear some Last Exit here too, definitely, as well as Shuggie Otis and, err, a little Unknown Mortal Orchestra maybe? Anyway, very nice record, though having only heard it once I'm struggling to remember what any of the individual songs sound like. This may change after I've listened to it a bunch, which I plan to do.

yes

more albums should be 28 mins long

great record. discovered "a quiet storm" too thanks to this thread - also A++ incredible

oh yeah, a quiet storm is peak smokey, lovely record indeed

ok I just bought this

This is a real treat.

this album is fucking amazing!!!!

ok I just bought this

― Paul Ponzi, Friday, September 4, 2020 5:14 PM (three months ago) bookmarkflaglink

but it still hasn't arrived

Yeah, still enjoying this. Shame it made such a good job of falling down the cracks when it came to the EOY lists. Glad you got to hear it Brad, the balance of restraint and emotion is very Blue Nile

And Paul, I still haven't found a physical copy either

Loving this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEFyx61S6Pg

!!

New music coming tomorrow!!!!💥

— Eddie Chacon (@EddieC) August 10, 2022

great news. best record of 2020 imo.

Sounding great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXwWP-_tFwU

New album announced: https://eddiechaconofficial.bandcamp.com/album/sundown

great news! the two new tracks are sounding very good. vibe seems slightly more narcotic on this one?

Narcotic is a good call. Kinda woozy city-pop thing going on? Looking forward to the full album.

Absolutely loving "Step By Step." As good as anything on the previous LP. Other two preview tracks sound pretty good, too!

agree, it's excellent

New album is just as gorgeous as his debut. Holy Hell in particular is fantastic. I'm loving what this guy is doing.

oh hell yeah, so excited to listen to this

This is lovely, thanks for the heads up

Oh this is produced by John Carroll Kirby, that makes sense.

(I know JCK but honestly I've never heard of Eddie Chacon or Charles and Eddie)

https://www.passionweiss.com/2023/03/30/eddie-chacon-interview/

Oh wow, didn't realise the album was out. Saw a new track in my Release Radar this morning but assumed it was just another single.

This is a gorgeous record. Making me think of a bunch of things, all of them in that warm 70s sweet spot: John Martyn, Smokey, Tim Buckley in places, Curtis. The production is perfect.

Yeah love this. It also has a perfect length.

“the morning sun” is gorgeous. beautifully captures the spirit of skyward-facing 70s soul, could definitely hear stevie or terry callier or someone singing it

All lols aside, 'perfect length' is underrated in an album. Would make a good thread.

Voted for "Holy Hell" (and JCK!) in 2022 polling so this should have been highly anticipated in this house. Lucky I can rely on ILM to alert me to precisely this sort of new release. :) Particularly digging the percussion on "Haunted Memories" at this instant...

Really love this. Feels like it's more expansive stylistically than the previous album, or perhaps rather that it leans a bit more into exploring the vibes of the influences each track takes its cues from.

This is a gorgeous record. Making me think of a bunch of things, all of them in that warm 70s sweet spot: John Martyn, Smokey, Tim Buckley in places, Curtis. The production is perfect.

― Shard-borne Beatles with their drowsy hums (Chinaski), Friday, March 31, 2023 4:21 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

shuggie otis too...this is so fucking great. he's on the aquarium drunkard podcast, good interview.

y’all should really check out John Carrol Kirby’s solo albums if you like this, he produced both Chacon records and he’s pretty great.

“step by step” reminds me a lot of outkast’s “so fresh so clean”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znqZ8dPbLLU

^bliss

omg, this is gorgeous. Could quite easily fit on *Drift*.

New interview by Pete Paphides on the Ace Records Podcast:

https://soundcloud.com/ace-records-ltd/the-ace-records-podcast-30-eddie-chacon

Kinda fascinating -- says his fave Dylan album of all time is Infidels and "Jokerman" is his standby/standard.

So happy to score the repress of Pleasure Joy Happiness today

Sundown been my regular feeldown floaty warm balm for a while

https://eddiechaconofficial.bandcamp.com/album/lay-low
New album in January. First track is gorgeous.

guy's on a roll

New album is really good. I really liked Sundown but for whatever reason I found that I wasn't going back to it nearly as much as PJ&H (still his masterpiece imo). But after two spins, Lay Low feels like something I'll be playing a lot.

I love it. I've become an avid follower of nu-Eddie

yep, still playing it!