Rickolus Is Coconuts

How the hell is Rickolus not a massive star?  This Jacksonvillian is easily the best musical product to come out of the Bold City since well...ever.  While other bands have risen to popularity overnight, Rickolus has been more of a slow burn when it comes to his music.  Yet, he's so consistently brilliant and well consistent in releasing material that's memorable, rooted firmly in indie rock and just so damn good that stardom deserves to be his. Seriously, world, get with the program. 

His latest album Coconut is yet another quirky notch of brilliance in his career.  With massive hooks, choruses that linger for days and his kooky mannerisms Rickolus creates a tweeish pop world that's truly all his own.  Sure he jumps from post grunge, indie rawk and Britpop influences like a 12 year old girl skipping rope, but he does it with such finesse and assuredness that it works well for him.  I mean the first three songs alone on Coconut toss you around like a broken washing machine.  From the thrashy workout of “Wasteland,” to the massive soaring hit in the making, “Destroyer,” your heart will suffer heartbreak, chills, and possibly a coronary.  This is from a guy who lives in Duval folks.  Duval.  Rick and his band have crafted a brilliant record here that rarely falters and even the ballads are a worthy but heart wrenching five minutes of your time.

Coconut is fantastic in every conceivable way.  It's stupendously poptastic with enough of a rough edge about it to keep Rick's cred well intact.  Probably my favorite album of the last six months it's difficult for me not to picture this record getting huge.  Rickolus has the chops, has the songs, and has all his shit together enough where he should be hobnobbing with stars and establishing residencies in various London clubs.  Once again...success deserves to be his and Coconut goes a long way to helping achieve that goal.  You can help him get there as well by buying this record.  Now.      

Rickolus's Coyote & Mule

Rick Colado is a star. As Rickolus he's a superstar. This homegrown talent has, over the last decade or so, quietly created some of the best emotional, heart string pulling indie rock the world hasn't heard. It's a shame really because the guy can write one heck of a tune and his songs deserve to be heard. The last Julius Airwave album is a masterpiece and his two previous solo albums as Rickolus are genius; just listen. With a new record in hand, Rick had returned with a bookend to his last album Youngster. Entitled Coyote & Mule it seems to be filled with tone poems, aural sketches, and some interesting ideas that have been flushed out into awkwardly cool songs.

Utilizing a minimal amount of instrumentation and playing it all by himself he has essentially produced what could be affectionately called his "acoustic record." A bit lo-fi and a bit bedsit pop, Rick experiments with a whole host of approaches and sounds here to come up with the songs on Coyote & Mule. Think distorted vocals, minimal guitar work, folk music, sad songs, and happy ones. For the most part all of them work and work well proving that the guy really can do no wrong.

Rick has a subtlety and shyness about him that almost makes him seem a bit too twee for his own good. While that might be a detriment to some, I think that's really half of his charm; Rick sounds like a nerdy kid that just happens to know how to write a fine pop song as well as play World or Warcraft. He uses that to his advantage constantly. Coyote & Mule continues Ricks tradition of writing fantastic shy, shuffly, indie rock that's bound to break big at some point. It has to. His ability to make the girls swoon and the guys jealous is a credit to his songwriting ability and his star power. Rickolus proves that nice guys can finish first and it's about time the rest of the world realized it to.

Jacksonville's Rickolus Isn't A Youngster

Ok...right off the bat, you should know that this is a biased review. I know Rick Colado and we used to work together along with his wife and his former band at Eclipse a couple of years ago. So to say I'm going to like this record almost seems obvious to me because I've always thought that Rick was a star; he's charismatic, ridiculously talented, can make the ladies swoon, and write a pretty good song. As times change and people move on I lost touch with Rick but never lost interest in his music. I have to admit that upon receiving YoungsterI was pretty well chuffed that he was still making music.

Youngster, sees Rickolus growing up as a songwriter and coming up with rich, texturally exciting, and deep songs that are a far cry from his Julius Airwave days. While you can't help but compare his voice to any number of Northwestern indie rock bands, he's got a subtlety and shyness about him that almost makes him seem a bit too twee for his own good. While that might be a detriment to some, I think that's really half of his charm; Rick sounds like a nerdy kid that just happens to know how to write a fine pop song as well as play World or Warcraft. That being said his music is not all tweeness and games. In fact, much of Youngster is a moody album of brilliant pop songs dedicated to putting his days of youth and yore behind him. Rickolus is clearly at his best here and this album surpasses anything he ever did with his former band Julius Airwave or his nineteen million other side projects he's tackled since I've known him.

Whether it's marriage, his daughter, living here, being in bands, seeing things change or whatever; his influences have helped shaped the experiences that led to this recording and it's as if Rickolus has created a sweeping world of dramatic highs and lows in which we can all get lost in. This is what the Shins have always wanted to sound like and it's what Ballboy would sound like if they were from the South as opposed to Scotland and that folks is far from a bad thing. This is the sort of record you want to call your best friend because it knows you and you know it. It's a happy sad sort of thing that's as likely to put a smile on your face as it is to bring tears to your eyes and you have to love that about it. It's a gorgeous effort that's made even more impressive when you learn that he pretty much did all by himself. I think it would be easy to say that Youngster is one of the best cathartic and artistic experiences I've heard.

From the piano led shyness of, "My Old Face," to the downtempo, sweeping, slow pop of "King Among Kings," Youngster demonstrates that Rickolus is clearly one of the best songwriters in Jacksonville if not the country. Rickolus has come up with a great record and he's not lost an ounce of talent since the dissolution of Julius Airwave. The guy is clearly a star and a talent and I sincerely hope this album sees him get the credit he truly deserves. Youngster is loaded with the melodies, harmonies, lyrics, and songs that should make that possible and as someone from Jacksonville his talent and his record is something that needs to be celebrated. Here's to you Rick and do you have that ten bucks I lent you back in 2006?