Boston SoundCheck Magazine Issue 36, March 2000

THE AMPLIFIER

Joel Cage - Nobody

Produced by Joel Cage and Jay Williston; Mastered by Jonathan Wyner at M-Works

Joel Cage is the consummate musical artist.
Writing all but one of the songs on this and his previous album, Last Hard Road, Cage also arranged, per-formed and recorded all 13 tracks himself in his home studio. And yet Nobody sounds as clean and professionally executed as most any album out there - and often far more intimate and personal. Three years straight of winning the USA Songwriting Competition bespeaks his compositional talents, but nothing says it like the music itself. He knows how to take from the best and how to make the best out of what he has. Combining his previous rock incarnations with current singer/songwriter inclinations, Cage borrows from the musical vernacular of James Taylor, Peter Gabriel, Al Stewart and himself and, in the process, creates songs that are part tribute, part exploration, and all Joel. Opening the album are "Lover" - a chunky plead for someone new to care for - and "Wander" - a list of what he is willing to do for that person (take note, ladies, and see if your man matches up).
"Cage creates songs that are part tribute,
part exploration, and all Joel."
"Baggage" pulls the vibe from the title track to Cage's debut while "Nobody" titles this album with an airy sonnet of attentive devotion. Anyone who has shared New England with Cage will especially appreciate the dreary hailstorm and triumphant breaks of "Winter." With the storm having passed, Cage opens the windows and the sounds of his "Home" and then crawls inside for the introspective ballad "Reason." "Rose" returns to the chunky rhythm of the opening track but with more elaborate patterns and images. The slow drizzle of "April" tells the story of yet another romance gone awry while "Fatman" speaks of getting off the stoop and finding yourself a place in the working world. Continuing his pattern of one cover per album (and, on this album, one word per title), Cage cuts U2's rooftop rocker down to the at least equally powerful but more "Streets." The closer, appropriately called "Goodbye," takes one last look back at a lingering love and gives Cage the strength and solace to move on. Hopefully, he will continue to move in the directions demonstrated by Nobody.

- Matthew S. Robinson