Take It All Away

by Ryan Cabrera

Overview

Golden-spiked pop/rock boy-child Ryan Cabrera is consumed by teenage heartbreak. As the protagonist for nearly every song on his (better than it should be) major-label debut, Take It All Away, he pines for loves both past and present like a deer on the highway faced with the field, the median, or the truck. For the most part it's the latter that the young "heart-rocker" chooses to get into it with, but the singer/songwriter/guitarist and his golden-tipped man-child/producer -- Johnny Rzeznik from the Goo Goo Dolls -- have concocted such a lively musical landscape for their "dear diary" lyrics that it's almost impossible not to smile amid the frank -- albeit cliched -- emotional wreckage. From the opening "Mr. Blue Sky"-style piano rocker "Let's Take Our Time" to the falsetto-rich tenderness of "True," Cabrera proves himself to be more than just another pretty face with a lot of industry money behind him. He's got a great voice, a knack for incorporating Beatlesque key changes into otherwise mediocre melodies, and a healthy, irony-free take on angst that will earn him a raging sea of young women to wade through. Rzeznik fills each track with a combination of modern Pro Tools wizardry and good old-fashioned guitar playing -- ornate finger-picked acoustics appear randomly throughout -- and it's a testament to his industry tenacity that each one sounds like a potential hit. Take It All Away is as disposable as the pop genre itself, and Cabrera is the perfect proxy, but if he can ride out the fleeting fame and fortune that goes hand in hand with a big-money/radio-ready industry record, he might just have what it takes to build a career on his own terms. ~ James Christopher Monger

Product Details

Release Date:	08/17/2004
Label:	Atlantic
UPC:	0075678370229
Rank:	123013

Tracks

1. Let's Take Our Time
2. On the Way Down
3. True
4. Exit to Exit
5. Kinds of Sadness
6. Echo Park
7. Take It All Away
8. Shame on Me
9. She's
10. Illusions
11. Blind Sight
12. On the Way Down
13. On the Way Down

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Ryan Cabrera   Primary Artist,Vocals,Guitar (Acoustic)
Francis Cabrel   Primary Artist
John Rzeznik   Guitar (Acoustic),Vocals (Background)
Greg Suran   Guitar (Electric)
Gregg Bissonette   Drums,Percussion
Rhett Hulcy   Piano
Daniel Chase   Percussion
Raoul Shroff   Saxophone
Paul Bushnell   Bass

Technical Credits

Steve Diamond   Composer
John Rzeznik   Composer,Producer
Curt Frasca   Composer
Doug McKean   Mixing,Engineer
Darrell Thorp   Assistant Engineer
Jimmy Harry   Composer
Kara DioGuardi   Composer
Sabelle Breer   Composer
Guy Chambers   Composer
Ryan Cabrera   Composer,Producer
Brian Vibberts   Assistant Engineer
Savan Kotecha   Composer
Dean Cundey   Photography
Christina Dittmar   Art Direction
Craig Robert Smith   Mixing,Engineer
Shep Solomon   Composer
Benjamin Niles   Design
Evan Lamberg   Executive Producer
Greg Burns   Assistant Engineer
Skye Peyton   Cover Photo,Photography
EMI Ferguson   Digital Editing
David Burrier   Product Manager
Ted Jensen   Mastering