From the Soil to the Soul (Exclusive Bonus Version)

Because former skateboarder Tommy Guerrero is influenced by his native San Francisco (his records often reference the city), his new home at Quannum Records, who released his fourth full-length, From the Soil to the Soul, is quite fitting. There's a smooth West Coast vibe that runs through the entire album, from the Pacific sun-soaked opener, "Hello Again," to the light traffic and urban noise on "Mission Flats," to the nearly rocking "Let Me in Let Me Out," featuring the melodic rapping of labelmate Lyrics Born. But From the Soil to the Soul is also darker than anything Guerrero has made before, with heavy basslines that drive the songs along, funky and warm in "War No More" and "Badder Than Bullets" and somber and intense in "Tomorrow's Goodbye" and "Molotov Telegram," the latter sounding like it should be used in a Grand Theft Auto-type video game. Guerrero has become quite adept at layering all the various elements in his music without overwhelming it, allowing space — both within the chords and riffs themselves and between them — to contribute to the overall feel of the record as much as the actual instrumentation does. Funk-based guitar lines play over each other while the keyboard chimes in appropriately, "No Guns More Glory" brings in a Hammond B-3, and "Just Ain't Me," which has Guerrero himself singing, "Whatever you want from me, I can never give," over and over, uses a Quantic-style string loop and a lot of cymbal. It's laid-back yet focused, a satisfying combination that produces a nice sense of continuity within the album, so that even though, by the end, the songs do seem to blend into one another (offset by the occasional vocal track, including a great Brazilian lounge one by Curumin), there's nothing boring about it at all. Instead it's a well-composed entity, more complicated — or at least less breezy and sunny — than Guerrero's other solo work while still retaining his individuality and sound, which makes From the Soil to the Soul a very listenable release, the kind of thing you'd want to have in the background as you hang out with your friends and talk about the best show you ever saw at Bottom of the Hill.