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Stamford, Connecticut native Chapell’s fourth album, The Underground Music Show, features thirteen songs born during the pandemic. As a result, many of the songs are either insular or reflect Chapell’s observations of living during that tumultuous period of history. Working with his core band of guitarist/mandolin player Ann Klein, bassist Malcolm Gold, Grammy-award-winning violinist Lorenza Ponce, and drummer Rodney Howard supplies these cuts with the necessary ballast to linger in the listener’s memory. Numerous other musicians make their presence felt. Contributors such as vocalists The Crush Boys, Doug Yowel’s drums on the song “The Space Between Us”, Ali Culotta’s organ playing during “Oh, Amor”, and others without reducing The Underground Music Show to the tiresome quality of an all-star affair. Chapell’s songwriting is the center and commands your attention from beginning to end.
Ann Klein makes crucial contributions to the opener. Potent guitar playing provides colorful exclamation points throughout the album’s title track, and kicking off the release with this number shows self-confidence. Lorenza Ponce’s violin playing marks another high point of the track with a particularly eloquent solo. Chapell’s lyrical acumen burns bright, but he’s arguably too wordy at a handful of points during the song. Chapell packs the steady mid-tempo trajectory of “The Space Between Us” with a few subtle variations in its pacing. Doug Yowel’s drumming is key to pulling that off. You can’t ignore the song’s pop overtones, but it never cheapens this well-rounded and written composition.
Piano plays a key role in the preceding song and adds a lot to “Bottom of the Ocean”. Chapell layers the track’s pop sensibilities with tasteful acoustic guitar and sings the song’s introspective, reflective lyrics with such outgoing verve that it draws you into the experience. “Suddenly” is one of the album’s most likable tunes. It marries an upbeat pop arrangement with yet more introspective lyrics reflecting on the inevitable march of time and our personal shifting place in a world forever up for grabs. It features one of The Underground Music Show’s best choruses.
Ann Klein’s guitar playing shines again during “I Used to Say This Could Never Be Me”. It’s another tune reflecting on the changes that arrive with age, this time in a more overt fashion than the aforementioned track. “I Used to Say This Could Never Be Me” boasts one of the album’s strongest vocal tracks with supporting scat singing that reinforces one of Chapell’s best lead vocals. “Oh, Amor” is a torrid indie pop-rocker with novel musical touches such as Ponce’s violin playing and Ali Culotta’s organ work adding color. His ability to convincingly shift gears between multiple styles is one of The Underground Music Show’s abiding strengths.
The pop bounce of “Good Morning Baby Blues” closes the collection. It is one of the album’s most musically direct tunes, playful without pandering for the audience’s favor, and unabashed in its depiction of “life with baby”. It may seem to end The Underground Music Show on a slightly incongruous note, as it superficially strikes one as a throwaway rather than a finale. However, deeper investigation reveals it to be in keeping with the album’s thematic thrust. Chapell’s fourth studio concoction is a layered and entertaining reminder of the songwriter’s considerable talents.
Jennifer Munoz
