by David Wilikofsky
Have you ever walked into a building and just marveled at the sheer audacity of human ambition? For me, this happened when I visited Gaudí’s La Sagrada Familia. Gaudí may be my favorite architect ever, and being physically present in one of his creations only cemented that. What has stuck with me isn’t any particular detail but the cumulative impact of them all, how you could visit that space a thousand times and likely still discover something you’d overlooked on every prior one. I only bring up this because Sprecato, the latest album from James Jonathan Clancy, engendered similar feelings in me. This is Clancy’s first album in seven years, but he’s managed to keep busy in the interim running the great Maple Death Records. Sprecato is many things, but one thing in particular has stuck out to me: it’s massive, not in length but in the cavernous psychic landscapes it conjures up. It’s the sound of standing alone amid vaulted ceilings and ornate decoration, giving yourself up to the sheer majesty of your surroundings.
At it’s heart, Sprecato is a singer-songwriter album, but the form that takes changes wildly across the album. Clancy is a versatile vocalist who can shift from loner-folk crooner to fire and brimstone preacher with ease. His backing band (whose core is Dominique Vaccaro on guitar, Andrea De Franco on synths and Kyle Knapp on sax) are capable of matching that energy. The Nick Cave-esque “A Worship Deal” builds to a climax that includes a cacophonous chorus of saxes fluttering around Clancy’s cries; the drawling backdrop of “Had It All” imbues the track with a mournful, dirge-like quality. Though they cover a lot of territory, the through line is always Clancy himself sitting at the center of each track.
Not everything feels like a smashing success; “To Be Me”, perhaps my least favorite track here, feels a bit too close to an LCD Soundsystem outtake. But there are far more hits then misses here. Highlights “I Want You” or “Black and White” take the idea of cosmic loner folk to the extreme, blowing it up to epic proportions. The aforementioned “A Worship Deal” is a fever dream that practically foams at the mouth. There’s an icy beauty to the plinking piano and pulsing synths of “Fortunate”. Sprecato is strongest in these widescreen moments, a series of towering monuments constructed directly in your headphones.