Daniel Grinberg
Short Stories
(GreenTone Music)

“80 years” is a sweet song of finger-picked acoustic, light key touches and soft female warble. Building with drums and the rest of the musicians, I was taken with the softness of this track and found I didn’t need the full band treatment, competent as it is, and is throughout on Daniel Grinberg’s Short Stories. On the album, Grinberg is joined by Alex, Aveva Dese, Yoav Arbel, Maor Swartzberg and Tal Tamari. I like the electric and Swartzberg’s bass especially on the changes of “Hey You” before keys and drums come snapping in and we are into a Tom Petty sound-a-like backing when the tune opens up. “House of Dreams” reveals a heavy organ and chant-like refrain, while frontman/composer/main storyman here, Grinberg, sings over a laid back beat on “Old Town,” with a banal lyric, I’m sorry to say. “Michaela” begins with layered synth lines and an effective female vocal (Grinberg certainly arms himself with solid singers here), then shifts into the drums and bass taking the beat. “Thanks” sounds different than most before it, with its acoustic guitar and snapping snare and a simple but effective lyric, while “You Give Me,” the album ender, sounds a little too much like “Thanks,” actually. It’s an odd combination that these two are the last on Short Stories.