Michael Hall: The Song He Was Listening to When He Died

(Freedom Records 2006)

The Song He Was Listening to When He Died, Hall's eighth album, produced by “Scrappy” Jud Newcomb and George Reiff, is consciously different from other albums Hall has done in the past. Hall, Newcomb, and Reiff--friends who have known one another other for two decades--set out to break down and then rebuild a dozen songs Hall had written over the previous few years, sometimes beginning with old analog drum machines, other times with a Wurlitzer piano or an acoustic guitar. Then they layered sounds and rhythms, by themselves (Newcomb has been guitarist for Loose Diamonds, Toni Price, the Resentments, and Beaver Nelson; Reiff has played bass with Joe “King” Carrasco, Charlie Sexton, and Chris Robinson) and with people like drummer Joey Shuffield from the Wild Seeds (and Fastball), singer Julie Lowry, and other local musicians, who played vibes, trumpet, and various percussion things. The result is a strange pop record, part bitter and part sweet, from the spare acoustic beauty of “Out Where the Highways Roll,” to the buzzsaw despair of “Captain Captain” and the bizarre Vietnamese disco of “I Had a Girl in Dien Bien Phu.” There's also plenty of pure pop longing, as only a true rock 'n roll veteran can write and sing, in songs like “Summer” and “The Song He Was Listening to When He Died.”  

The moment of death has never sounded more alive. 

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