Les Fradkin – “Hurricane Warning” / “12 Strings Of Joy”

Les Fradkin – “Hurricane Warning” / “12 Strings Of Joy” – Singles Review

With a flurry of synthesizers, “Hurricane Warning” gets this two-track split-single moving quickly.  Akin to the kind of stuff you’d have once heard as the soundtrack playing as K.I.T.T. roared down the highway to catch the bad guys in some Knight Rider episode, it’s a song that has no problem crossing from one side of the road to the other as it switches seamlessly between its digital and analog sounds.  I don’t know that I could say it’s gonna be a track I’d normally listen to, but I don’t think it’s something I’d turn off either.  I guess in this instance with a more noticeably dated sound to its music & production, it just feels a lot like I’ve lived through all the 80s shows that would have used this as its theme song already.  Sometimes familiarity is a comforting thing, sometimes it can work against you a little & remind you of an era or other similar sounds…I dunno…you can’t really help that stuff so much.  All you can do is put what you can into a song and the court of public opinion is gonna do whatever the heck it does.  In my opinion, Les does a solid job of recreating that kind soundtrack/theme-song type of vibe on “Hurricane Warning” and manages to give you a track that has personality & the right kind of energy for what he was looking to make.  Besides that, there’s always a great market for retro stuff out there, and especially as of late once again – think of things that have done well with their audience recently like the movie I Saw The TV Glow, or even a show like Stranger Things – there would be ample space in places like those for a song like “Hurricane Warning.”  As to whether or not something like this translates into everyday listening, that’s probably more up for debate with each of you as individuals, but as far as I can tell, Fradkin got the most out of this idea as there was potential for, and again, that’s all you can ever really do.  He’s played it with purpose and passion, and he’s shown some versatility in his craft by taking this song out towards the fringe of what we’ve heard in his music before, which gives you a lil’ something new to listen to from the guy.  I think he was wise to keep these tunes as instrumentals, they’re full enough as they are, so again, credit where credit is due in terms of Les doing what the songs are really calling for…no need to overstuff a track if you can avoid doing that, and he navigates that successfully.

As for “12 Strings Of Joy,” I’m cool with it.  I suppose there’s an argument to be made that it’s meant to be designed for the holidays and such, with a tiny nod here and there throughout the song to cue you into that…but rest assured, if it went too far in that direction, I’d definitely be out as Xmas tunes have never, and will never, be my thing.  Of the two tracks here though, I actually think I might have preferred “12 Strings Of Joy” – I don’t know that I loved the mix on it as much, but as far as ideas and energy go, there’s a lot to dig about this particular track.  It takes you on an impressive journey despite its short length of less-than three minutes…and I think it’s fair to say that it starts out good but ends up great.  Les has created two very LARGE beginnings with each of these tracks before settling in to the main meat of both songs…so be ready for that…if you leave your volume up like I tend to, he’ll probably scare the Jesus right outta ya as either of these tunes starts up.  Dude displays a ton of the skill he’s known for on “12 Strings Of Joy” though, and he should get some real credit for that.  I think the only part I felt was a little problematic from the listening end was around the 1:50 mark…somewhere around there…nothing he’s doing is necessarily that outta line or too detrimental, but it does seem a bit jumbled in the breakdown compared to the rest of the clarity you find naturally occurring in the rest of the song.  What I do actually like about that moment, even if it seems to feel a bit more confused for a second or two, is that it ends up setting up the finale really well, where Les surges with purpose and creates a genuinely memorable highlight over the last forty seconds or so as the song comes to an end after displaying its strongest moments.  It’d be harder not to appreciate what he’s done with the guitars in this tune than to simply admit he’s put some of his best on display there.  The bells I could probably take or leave, though I understand the purpose they serve in a song like this one.  Kinda just sounds like someone pulled the fire alarm in the background to me, but hey, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll hear it in the same way that I do.  For some of y’all out there, you’ll be like, right on, Christmas is obviously getting closer.  To me, hearing “12 Strings Of Joy” is like getting an audible reminder that the holiday music crowd could pounce on me at any moment despite the resistance I put up to it every single year.  That being said, I very much appreciate the fact that “12 Strings Of Joy” meets us somewhere in the middle and ain’t too overbearing in the holiday sound department…there’s just enough for it to fit that genre if you want it to, but I think you can still make a case that there’s also enough other stuff goin’ on that you can enjoy it outside of December.

Find out more about Les Fradkin from his official website at:  https://lesfradkin.com