Decades after 1992's
Gravity
, the solo debut that let the world know
Alejandro Escovedo
was one of America's great songwriters, the man has little if anything to prove, but he doesn't have to rest on his laurels. For 2024's
Echo Dancing
,
Escovedo
has taken a truly idiosyncratic look at his own songbook. He cut new, radically different versions of 14 songs from his back catalog. Reportedly,
had traveled to Italy to cut a set of fresh tunes with
Don Antonio
and
Nicola Peruch
, who collaborated with
on his 2018 album
The Crossing
, but at the last minute he came up with the idea of re-interpreting some of his older compositions instead, though fans can be excused for not recognizing all of
's oldies. A few of these songs are genuinely obscure, but even the best-known tracks get a truly thorough reworking, with scratchy guitars, lo-fi keyboards, and vintage drum machines often dominating the arrangements, making much of this seem like
's long-lost new wave or synth-punk LP. Tracks like "Sacramento & Polk" and "Wave" sound as if
Antonio
, and
Peruch
were aiming to be eccentric for its own sake (especially the former, which could pass as a B-side for
the Normal
's "Warm Leatherette"), though the more spare and atmospheric tone of "Outside Your Door" and "Last to Know" (dominated by droning keyboards and minimal electronic drones, confirming
's statement that
Suicide
was a major influence on him) fit the songs well while also casting them in a bold new light. The notion of
making a lo-fi junkshop electronic album sounds even more unlikely than him covering his own songs for a full album, and while
is uneven, the hits outnumber the misses by a margin that qualifies this as a successful experiment. That said, given how well he and his collaborators take to this approach, perhaps this would have been an even better LP if he'd come up with a set of original songs purpose-built to these.
is a great interpreter, but he's an even better songwriter. ~ Mark Deming