The Hartford Courant which is Connecticut's largest daily newspaper has reviewed Baby Comes Home.
PATRICK CLEANDENIM
Baby Comes Home
Ba Da Bing
Patrick Cleandenim hit 21 just as he finished recording "Baby Comes Home." That's slightly disturbing, given how mature the album is. The ambitious Cleandenim dishes out stately, orchestral pop like a young Burt Bacharach, though he's more likely to cite David Axelrod and Phil Spector as influences. Using University of Kansas music students for string and horn sections, the album boasts an unlikely alchemy of spirited Motown and baroque confessionals, imbued with the playfulness of bubblegum.
Yet darkness often descends, whether Cleandenim is crooning about poisoned cognac and caviar (with a sassy backup singer to boot) or pondering the difference between the drugs in various cities. Without a trace of emotion he sings, `I didn't have a clue what we were coming to / Until you said `I'm gone.'" That this all happens over such a classic-sounding backdrop makes it more unnerving still.
Cleandenim holds court from the bench of his piano, delivering pitch-black lyrics in the smoothest of voices as flurries of instruments sweep around him. That the album was recorded during the graveyard shift may explain its sinister vibe, but it's harder to fathom how a no-name 20-year-old crafted a stunning debut with eerie depth.
- DOUG WALLEN
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