Iran!
Back From the Brink is a double CD set that chronicles seven years in the musical journey of Kourosh Yaghmaei. The Iranian singer and guitarist — who correctly points out in the accompanying booklet that the modern guitar is derived from an earlier Persian instrument — fell in love with Western pop music and suffered the terrible misfortune of finding his muse just as a bunch of crazed religious fanatics seized control of his country. (Oh yeah, fuck Rick Perry.)
Although Yaghmaei's compositions are mostly permeated with a quiet sense of joy, the works can't help but be laced with a hint of melancholy. It's impossible for the listener not to constantly wonder what course Kourosh's career would have taken had not a bunch of fundamentalist jackwads (fuck you, Rick Perry) banned an art form just because it caused their underdeveloped genitals to quiver, while the packaging makes you seriously question why every male between the ages of 16 and 30 living on planet Earth on during the 1970s looked like the late Freddie Prinze Sr.
Verdict: There are plenty of reasons to recommend Back From the Brink. Mainly because the songs have a great, quirky energy and because Kourosh's efforts to blend traditional Middle Eastern motifs with the Mersey beat pepper the tunes with wonderful little sonic surprises, but also because every CD purchased is a tiny dagger in the dark heart of repression and a small victory for those artists who will not be silenced by fanatics.
P.S. Fuck Rick Perry.
