ISSUE 35 
FEBRUARY '00
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Hip, Hip, Hip, Horray.
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Hip, Hip, Horray
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Hip, Horray
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Horray
 BOSTON SOUNDCHECK CD REVIEWS 
Valentine - Walkin' Shoes - 11-song CD
Recorded and mixed at Sunset Studio, Peabody MA - Mastered by Dave Locke at 9West Mastering - Produced by Valentine Misuraca
Valentine's his name and we got some bluesy, jazzy, rockin' keyboards here. Impressively Valentine performs on all the instruments on these tracks except guitar on a couple of tracks. As the writer of this album also, a high five goes out to him for all the good work. Some cool tunes here featuring a solid chordal structure from the keys and guitar. I definitely hear Steely Dan on some of this stuff. "Call on Me" was a favorite with its deep groove and soaring vocal melodies. This is definitely a strong suit in Valentine's material. He has a nice ear for grooves and space in his songs. The funky stylings of the keyboard really add to the grooves. By the way, Valentine has a really nice tone to his voice. I really liked what he did with the rhythms in a lot of songs, a lot of open space for the vocals to shine through. The production was very good in all the songs. Some of the lyric passages were at times almost obvious and not too deep in the ways of imagery or message, but those are Valentine's words and I always respect individual lyrics. Some of the drum lines and fills were a little suspect at times. Although played well, the bluesy songs were not as strong as when Valentine got into his more rhythmic tracks. The arrangements and hooks were nicely performed, but the overall feels were a little "vanilla" on these tracks. I like what Valentine has got going here. A good album with a refreshing keyboard oriented structure to a lot of the songs, there is some crossover potential here. Favorite songs were "Call on Me," "Down to the Bone," "Oh Love," and "Walkin' Shoes." Nice job!!
HHH1/4 Contact: (978) 977-0363
- Double A