{"id":53014,"date":"2017-02-07T14:18:28","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T20:18:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/?p=53014"},"modified":"2017-02-07T14:18:28","modified_gmt":"2017-02-07T20:18:28","slug":"itasca-open-to-chance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/2017\/02\/07\/itasca-open-to-chance\/","title":{"rendered":"Itasca: Open To Chance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium alignright wp-image-53015\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/itasca_open_to_chance.jpg?fit=300%2C300\" alt=\"itasca_open_to_chance\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/itasca_open_to_chance.jpg 300w, https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/itasca_open_to_chance-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/itasca_open_to_chance-125x125.jpg 125w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Itasca did not make a good first impression. The first sound on the album is a single drum beat to open \u201cBuddy,\u201d a dissatisfying song with a dissatisfying title. The first vocal line of that track sounds weak and hollow. Singer\/songwriter Kayla Cohen gives this kind of performance at many points, occasionally sounding downright out of tune. However, <em>Open To Chance<\/em> has its shining moments, and they may be just enough to buy it some airtime. Tracks like \u201cCarousel\u201d and \u201cAngel\u201d are charming and more musically solid. The emotional character is slightly reminiscent of John Denver, if we can say that without giving this debut album too much credit. It\u2019s pleasantly soft, calm, innocent folk or country, something one might want to listen to while driving through the mountains.<br \/>\nIt should be noted that Cohen\u2019s guitar work sounds just fine throughout, at least from the perspective of someone with no guitar expertise. It gives a solid base to the vocals and doesn\u2019t distract. The same goes for other light wind instrumentation by other musicians found on a few tracks.<br \/>\nListening to this album has been surprising enjoyable, despite nasty first impressions. After the first ten minutes, it\u2019s calm and smooth enough to disappear behind the listener\u2019s work. Music doesn\u2019t always need to actively assert itself as art to be good art.<br \/>\n<b><br \/>\nRecommended If You Like: John Denver (barely)<br \/>\nRecommended Tracks: 6 (Carousel), 8 (Angel), 10 (Right This Time), 11 (Bonafide)<br \/>\nDo Not Play: None<br \/>\nWritten by Joe Underwood on 11\/12\/2016 <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pleasantly soft, calm, innocent folk or country, something one might want to listen to while driving through the mountains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15735,"featured_media":53015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3235,3230,181],"tags":[6310,5352,6312,6311],"class_list":["post-53014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","category-music-reviews","category-new-music-rotation","category-rock-rotation","tag-itasca","tag-joe-underwood","tag-kayla-cohen","tag-open-to-chance"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/itasca_open_to_chance.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15735"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}