Categories : Music Reviews, Rock + Pop.
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Rating: 3/5 Reviewer: Trent Depue |
Aaron Ross, the man who has taken on the musical persona Aaron Nazrul, is well traveled and it is from those travels that much of his debut release Butterfly Man receives much of its influence. The term Butterfly Man comes from Asian slang and refers to a restless soul, and the title track fittingly starts to build on that theme as it sets the tone of the album early. It is however, not until the second half of the record that this dynamic becomes blatantly apparent as the musical style shifts from the generally conservative soul of the record’s first half, to a diversified conglomeration of different musical styles and influences.
The result is a record that is initially consistent and universally applicable, which becomes more and more particularized as tracks go by. The aforementioned title track leads the initial pack with its memorable, and autobiographical lyric, “I’m just a butterfly man / today I’m yours / but tomorrow when I’m gone, you’ll understand,†while ‘Delivered’ and ‘Take These Chains’ also exemplify the work in the first half dozen tracks.
The multi-language ‘Tired of Waiting’ changes the pace of the album, as the second half of Butterfly Man is much more upbeat and exciting proven further by ‘Come and Get It,’ while a bluesy re-visitation jam of the title track brings the record to a close.
The final result is a musical experience that can be a little hard to gauge and at times disjointed, though charmingly so. Through and through, Butterfly Man is an album of growth. With its roots coming from a wide variety of distinctive genres and regions of the world, Nazrul proves his musical talent and his ability to combine the best aspects of the music he has picked up along his journeys.
