SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: MAX SUBAR – ANYTHING COULD BE

MAX SUBAR
ANYTHING COULD BE
MERGE RECORDS

If by looking at the cover for Max Subar’s album, Anything Could Be, you get the impression that you are looking at (and possibly will listen to) a typical singer-songwriter album, you would be both right and wrong.

Right, because yes, this is a singer-songwriter album, and its often sparse, acoustically driven sound is all over the place. Wrong, because there is that often missing element of distinction in such music, and here it goes beyond some inventive arrangement touches that embellish the music.

It is in one of the key elements that make singer-songwriter music work – the lyrical content that goes beyond ‘pain in my heart’ style storytelling that graces (or disgraces) so many singer-songwriter albums.

Chicago’s Subar has that touch so many singer-songwriters miss – quality and substance. As he notes, “There is so much room for newness in the weightiest or seemingly most paralyzing of times. No matter how foreign, frightening, anxiety-ridden, or unfamiliar chapters of life can feel, there is always an opportunity to tap deep into ourselves and land somewhere new, somewhere forward.”

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