(((O))) : CR and The Nones – The Ghosts Are Coming Home

Chris Gennone and his CR and The Nones named one of the songs on their second album The Ghosts Are Coming Home ‘The Hills of Pennsylvania’ even though they are from New Jersey. Close enough, though. Yet, what is their music on the album close to?

Well, you could say that the ten tracks here are close enough (and sometimes further away) from The War on Drugs going the Americana way with some Beach Boys harmonies and touches of everybody from Kurt Vile to Fletwwod Mac (the megastar version).

Any good? Better than good, actually, but everything that excellent pop rock, soft rock with louder touches should be anyway.

Gennone, and the core of guitarist Jim Abbott. and bassist Jim Dewitt, along with producer Ray Ketchem (Guided By Voices, Luna, among others), who mixed the album (Gennone produced) came up with a wide-screen sound that catches the spirit of what the sound of modern, melody-driven rock should be like today, with some sophisticated songwriting by Gennone and excellent playing by all involved.

Still, it is Gennone leading the way throughout, and, he explains:

“I wrote and recorded this album before, during, and after Covid, and I lived in five different places during this time, so it was a different experience than other stuff I’ve made. In the past, we’ve kind of just rolled with it and come up with guitar leads, riffs, and sounds on the fly. With Covid lockdowns and the help of some friends, this record really gave me the time and space to write and play my own leads, sing my own harmonies, change arrangements, and take on more of the production aspect of it.”

And it turns out that The Ghosts Are Coming Home is one of the albums that arrived close to the end of 2023, that will be often cited as one of the hidden gems of that year.