It’s been a hot minute here at SIMGE since we last heard from the prolific NJ songwriter Chris Gennone. When last we left our guitar slingin’ protagonist, he was fronting CR and the Degenerates.
Since then, the world has kept on spinning and left us all, uh, spun I suppose you could put it gently. Shaking off the dust after a period of personal reflection and emerging now as CR and the Nones, Gennone has honed his sound resulting in something larger altogether. Today, SIMGE is happy to premiere CR and the Nones’ debut LP, Living In Fear, in full.
“‘Living in Fear’ is the darkest and most personal record I’ve ever written,” shares Gennone. “I was really just falling apart in many different ways. I used to park my car on a dark street and sit there with a bottle, stuck somewhere in my head. But I think there’s also a sense of hope and understanding in these songs. I held onto those things for dear life, and it eventually pulled me out and I’ve lived to tell the story.”
That burnt-to-the-filter, streetlamp-hued rock grandeur is present throughout Living In Fear‘s 10 tracks. Oscillating between more intimate, acoustic-strummed portraits or cathartic, bottle rocket burners, Gennone finds beauty through the pain. The War On Drugs comparisons are apparent, but Gennone strikes a more urgent tone more akin to Win Butler as the middle trifecta of “A Hard Man to Find,” “Whispers of Time” and “The Back Door” blend for a sweeping climax.
Stream Living In Fear below and look for it out tomorrow via Favorite Friend Records.
