“I’ll never be in/ I’ll never be praised/ I’ll never be a genius,”
Mitch McVicker sings on “Upside Down,” a sublime, standout
track from his sophomore album. Yet if McVicker’s album rings
from top to bottom with humility and simplicity, it is a
wise-as-serpents approach. Chasing the Horizon may not rival
the best work of McVicker’s former roommate, the late Rich
Mullins, but McVicker sounds like he’s after something more
immediate: to prove he is his own man, creatively speaking.
And he does just that by immersing himself in American
roots-rock and folk textures. McVicker has crafted an album
that’s as laid back as still water on the surface, yet runs deeper
with each successive listen. High points include “It Won’t Take
Long,” a deliciously plodding big-top stomp reminiscent of
Bruce Springsteen’s “Wild Billy’s Circus Story” and the chilling
“Suits of Skin,” which uses vibrato guitar, saxophone, and
McVicker’s baritone vocal to reinforce the song’s theme: “He
chose to make us His home/ So how can we house Him?/ When
our souls are wrapped around our bones/ And we got suits of
skin.”
— Lou Carlozo