Love Made Me Drunk resembles a pristine picture-postcard from Paris. On one side, there is a stunning cityscape, replete with a stylized view of the world's most romantic city. This is when Gregory Page fills his songs with labyrinthine cobble-stone streets, stylish women, and the warm, yeasty smell of baguettes cooking in the morning.
Flip the postcard over, though, and you find a handwritten note from another world. For all his quaintness and amorous depictions of The City of Lights, Page's Paris is not without its ghosts. Throughout the album, figures move in and out of these vignettes, causing the songs' speaker to question the reality of the scene, and eventually his own existence.
Page describes his music as "Eurocana," or a mixture of Americana folk and the rich, orchestral music of the French torch singers from the first half of the twentieth century. His lyrics are alternating playful and introspective, revealing the influence of the former tradition.
At the same time, the arrangements are lush, full of warm bass lines, haunting strings, mischievous accordions, and of course, Page's stellar guitar playing. Taken together, the album progresses through a palpable storyline like the soundtrack to a classic French film, one that probably stars Brigette Bardot.
Page's voice shines throughout the album, instilling each track with vulnerability, sensitivity and insight. Tracks like "Broken Hearted Leg" and "One Cloud for Two" come across as mournful, desperate prayers to an estranged lover or God or simply to be carried off by a cold winter breeze.
Likewise, the album's title track possesses a Django Reinhardt groove and smoky cabaret feel. Here, and elsewhere on the record, Cindy Wasserman's sassy, self-assured harmonies provide the perfect compliment to Page's tender melodies.
Love Made Me Drunk is a concept album that actually works. Page succeeds in telling a story that balances an idealized, storybook hope for the world with an unassuming acceptance of its faults. The message the listener receives is sometimes foreign, sometimes familiar, but always vivid, eye-opening, and inspiring.
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