California singer/songwriter
Stephen Sanchez
landed an unlikely hit in 2021 with "Until I Found You," a lovelorn ballad cloaked in vintage reverb and 1950s nostalgia. An echo from the original era of the teen idol, it fused the early pop pathos of
Paul Anka
with glowing
Everly Brothers
harmonies and climbed its way onto charts around the globe. On his debut album,
Angel Face
,
Sanchez
reverse engineers a loose concept album around his hit, keeping up the guise of his adopted musical era. Through songs like the soulful "Evangeline" and the torchy "Be More" he sketches out a narrative involving a '50s troubadour in love with the femme fatale girlfriend of a mob boss. The results are sonically pleasing, and
's voice rises to the occasion, moving effortlessly between the raucous
Jerry Lee Lewis
rock & roll of "Shake" and the softer
Roy Orbison
croon of "Caught in a Blue." At times, though,
feels a bit like a revue or jukebox musical, faithfully re-creating an idyllic musical era through the rosy lens of the present. And because he is on a major label, the production, courtesy of
Ian Fitchuk
(
Kasey Musgraves
Gus Dapperton
), also keeps one foot in modern pop, an aesthetic compromise that in a way breaks the spell. Ultimately, it's the singles that keep
interesting, an ironic twist, given that the period he fetishizes most certainly favored singles over LPs. So, in a sense, he has hit his mark squarely. ~ Timothy Monger