Chris Burroughs - Blue Rose Records

RETO BURRELL
New Album:
Cat.-No.:
Release date:
Label:
Roses Fade Blue
BLU DP0323
2.2.2004
Blue Rose Records
Damn… he's got personality (even on a Sunday morning)
Something’s wrong. Something’s wrong when people feel guilty, but pretend to be innocent. Something’s
wrong when seats at the club of indecision are sold out. Something’s wrong when the wonder of life gets
ordinary. And something’s definitely wrong when roses fade blue.
So, what can you expect from an album telling you that nearly everything is wrong? Bet - something dark and
quite depressive. You lose.
Reto Burrell wouldn’t be the highly gifted singer and songwriter he’s been called by several of the music
scene’s authorities if he punished his audience with an album like this. Roses Fade Blue differs from other
acoustic albums. You’re right, it’s Sunday morning too on Roses Fade Blue. But behind the misty hazes
outside your window there’s sunlight. Or optimism. Or hope. Call it what you want.
The entertaining side
Artists usually record acoustic albums after five longplayers, ten tours, far beyond their forties. Reto Burrell is
in his early thirties. That’s what makes it bearable. That’s what makes it enjoyable. That’s how he’s able to
bring out the entertaining side in thinking about life. Thank God.
Something’s wrong – even with music. But while important people all over the world are searching for
superstars at the academies of fast-fading fame, some true musicians just don’t care. And Burrell is finding
Burrell. Again and again. And differently each time. At home, in the tour bus, at the hotel, on stage, in the
studio. Maybe real musical talent unfolds better somewhere other than on a weekly TV program.
A naked snapshot
Reto Burrell’s music has grown up with him, and he’s grown up with his music. “It feels quite strange if the
snapshot of your life – and that’s what albums are – at my age is an acoustic CD. I expected that to come
later on,” Reto says. “Take the chance – maybe you’ll never hear Burrell that close and unfiltered again,” he
adds – thinking about the risks such an album poses for an artist. If you take away everything that covers
your personality or hide what you really want to say, honesty is close to nudity. That’s where understanding
that no recording artist is doing it just for themselves can preserve a musician from blowing up. People who
write songs like Reto Burrell don’t write for themselves, they write for the world.
Postpuberty at its best
Roses Fade Blue is the impressive diary of a four-year “on and off the road” period of a grown up who retains
the curiosity and the lightness of being a child for the important moments of life when reason doesn’t help.
“He’s got balls,” Americans say when they’re listening to Reto Burrell’s music. He doesn’t wrap up the
teenager’s first experiences in bland songs. Sure, Burrell has fallen in love in his life, has been left several
times and knows how it feels to be overwhelmed by being a human being. But Roses Fade Blue is about the
next step … thinking about what happens when you’re happy, hurt or lost – not just describing it. Clever
psychologists might call it the “meta-feelings”. Reto calls it “Summertime”, “Bag” or “A Spell on Me”. Eleven
tracks in total, eleven reflections on being a performing artist for fifteen years and a man for twice as long.
The outlook is optimistic: So far, everything’s alright.
© 2004 by ke
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