Gabriel’s Painting
Too Open
No Starch
With a paced sound more befitting to the ears of adults in coffeehouses, Gabriel’s Painting is mature music. Too Open offers six songs, the shortest of which is just shy of four minutes long, which deal with love in the past tense, often with an air of melodrama or personal cliché. The music is pretty, usually a combination of acoustic guitar, simplistic bass lines, a piano focusing mostly on chords for a full effect, and bongos lightly keeping the background rhythm; all of which contributes towards a sound void of any rock n’ roll, but instead is classy in a James Taylor kind of way.
The vocals are trained and on key, a bit wispy, but staying involved without becoming too emotional. While the lyrics are unashamedly heartfelt, they may sometimes come off a bit corny, like “As she takes a breath, she’s taking in a piece of the world / As she breathes out, she’s giving a piece of herself to a girl,” from “She Says.” Still, Gabriel’s Painting is a well-done, thought-out effort for those more appreciative of the adult side of music.
