Chris Mayer & The Rockets – In One Room CD (Hicktown Records)

Springtime came earlier this year thanks to Chris Mayer & The Rockets. Their debut recording articulates with some positive vibrations, which introduce cheerful tones that resemble the music ideal for sunny seasons. The story behind this ear-appealing group is more than interesting. Chris Mayer felt the urge to start something more than another repetitious indie rock band, so he decided to invite the musicians from different walks of this profession. After a while, he gathered experienced musicians whose interests are entirely different. While Chris Mayer is a principal singer/songwriter, the remaining portion of the group includes a Brit-pop/world music bass player, a blues rock-oriented guitar player, and an energetic progressive metal drummer. At some points, you’ll think this mixture will never work, but wait until you hear In One Room, an album recorded live at the studio in one take.

In One Room carries ten profoundly detailed compositions, recorded live at the Hicktown Records studio. The first thing you’ll notice is outstanding sound quality. Each instrument is vividly hearable in the mix, and you won’t even realize that this performance was recorded in one take. The record producer/sound engineer has done an incredible job on this one. Perhaps Chris Mayer & The Rockets are deeply into indie pop-rock sound, decorated by mellow sounding chord progressions and sophisticated harmonies, but there’s even more than meets the eye. Each musician invested smaller chunks of preferred musical genres so you may hear elements of indie-folk, Brit-Pop, dream pop, and alternative rock. Still, these ingredients are only hearable through accentuations, guitar licks, and other detailed maneuvers.

Right with the initial beats, you may hear how these experienced musicians are operating as singular machinery. Their compositions are sounding like they spent decades performing together. While the vast majority of the material appears as a well-planned performance, Chris Mayer & The Rockets are leaving enough space for experimentations and improvisations. However, you won’t even notice these experimentations and improvisations because they sound incredibly good while performing together. Chris Mayer’s songwriting/composing skills are going beyond comprehension in so many ways, and the remaining portion of the group understands his ideas and brings them to reality. You will solely enjoy these sophisticated, mellow-sounding, ear-appealing indie compositions that are suitable for any mood and occasion.

In One Room comes on compact disc, housed in a digipack packaging with appropriate visual identity suitable for this music genre. However, this debut recording is also available on streaming services, such as Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and Deezer. The album is released by Hicktown Records and distributed by Cargo Records.