'Paul McCarthy' by Mike Viola
Perhaps best known for his work producing artists as diverse as Panic! at the Disco, Ryan Adams and Mandy Moore, Mike Viola also is a solid musician, singer and songwriter with a lineage that stretches back to the mid-1990s and indie cult favorite The Candy Butchers. On his latest studio album, Paul McCarthy, Viola takes obvious influences from the Beatles. But he also relies on subtle references to James Gang (!) and Black Sabbath (!!)
Backed by a dependable rhythm section, Viola sings in a wearily compelling voice — namechecking himself, his late wife Kim and Fenway Park’s “Green Monster” in the clever “Bill Viola”; brooding and jamming for an epic seven minutes on “Water Makes Me Sick”; and questioning the future of humankind on album closer “2023.” He also turns empathetic and elegiac on “Love Letters from a Childhood Sweetheart,” the record’s most moving track during which he directly addresses Kim’s parents and references her death from cancer: “When Kim died, I lost a friend/I lost a wife/But you, you lost a child/You lost a daughter, you lost a kid.”
To cheer himself up, Viola is touring for the first time in more than a decade — including a penultimate stop in Milwaukee at the Cactus Club 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 2.
Stream or download Paul McCarthy at Amazon here.
