Pueblo is the debut album from Berkley who are the current project of Andrew Jones, the recording Engineer who has worked previously with members of The Offspring and was part of the team writing Michael Jacksons new album at the time of Jacko's death. The album is loosely based on stories of growing up different in Pueblo Colorado.
The album opens with Pueblo Nights as Berkley sings about what it was like growing up in Pueblo Colorado and not being like the other kids. This is a gentle plaintive song for trying to live without getting bullied and be yourself while feeling terribly isolated.
Email is a gentle song hoping to get another one of those Emails that are more like an old school love letter, hoping and praying it won't be a kiss off, set against gentle indie pop all the drama of what's been happening in this relationship unfolds.
Your Place was the lead single off the album, it's a winsome piano led indie love song, as he tells us about how he's uncomfortable in himself, while wondering if he can stay at Your Place, this is part travelogue, part seduction, while in the middle of a bit of navel gazing becoming oddly intriguing, with a quite layered production that will grow on you after a few listens.
Oldies opens as a super slow soul barer for all the tears you've shed since it all went wrong.
California King Bed is in praise of having that first experience of sleeping in a King Sized bed in California, the excitement it brought, no matter how sparse the backing is the memories are full of action.
High School Tears remembers some of the teenage trauma, the pains of growing up while not fitting in, the bass is good and wobbly as the cymbals crash on through this gently evocative song.
Say Nothing is one of those damaging phrases that would have been drilled into Berkley when he was young, as a way of masking or hiding who you really are to just fit in, rather than being out and open about how you feel, the repression at this songs core appears to be represented by the chiming guitars.
Decade has an experimental intro with samples of home recordings set over a synth with super sparse piano backing. The snippets from a childhood, things that seemed important enough to record, even if they are just random thoughts.
Dark Energy is a slow thoughtful piano ballad with skittery percussion accentuating the thoughts and musing in how much dark energy surrounded him in his hometown.
The album closes with one of the singles from the album Fiesta Day, a driving emo indie building anthem, that has sort of road march drumming, twanged reverb guitar, telling us how he wants to spend that Fiesta Day with no need of any reader's wives while never losing hope.
Find Out more at https://www.alwaysberkley.com/ https://bigsecretrecords.com/pre-order-pueblo-now https://alwaysberkley.bandcamp.com/album/pueblo
