Mike Peralta - Music of My Youth

After years of playing and writing with bands that came and went with ever-changing line ups, Mike Peralta has decided to focus on his personal song writing and building a stable of songs he could take to his current band. His efforts have so far resulted in this debut album Music of My Youth.

As a solo album without a band full of instruments, Mike has kept it simple in content and returned to traditional song writing. Relying on lyrics with just simple backing to add texture and context, the music is built from little more than Mike’s voice, an acoustic guitar and only small cameos from a string section in the opener Starlit Moon, and from synths in I Bet You’d Forget, which adds some extra texture and really lifts the songs.

While the album in general is fairly laid back and downbeat in sound, the songs themselves have a mix of messages both sad and more upbeat. Songs like I Bet You’d Forget and Wasting All My Time are somewhat downbeat in tone as you may expect from the titles, but these are offset with songs like New Girlfriend – a track speaking back to the bitterly remembered ex with the chorus of “f**k you, I gotta new girlfriend,” and full of words fighting back against her wrongs. Or the somewhat mixed bag of She Loves Me – speaking of a girl showing interest yet he believes is too good for him.

If you are looking for something laid back in sound yet interesting, then Mike Peralta's Music of My Youth is a new album well worth looking at.


Music of My Youth is available now on CD from CDBaby and download from all the usual suspects.
More info and live dates can be found online at www.mikeperalta.com and www.myspace.com/mikeperaltamusic

DL