Alex Bogoluboff Lifetime Search CD

Once again, Alex Bogoluboff in “Lifetime Search” invites us to forget that, while he may be singing in a language foreign to many listeners, his real mother tongue is music. You might not understand Russian, but you always get his meaning. Using influences from every type of rock and popular music, Bogoluboff creates a Slavic wall-of-sound, a rich bed of electronica and acoustic colors in which his powerful baritone finds a perfect home. Sometimes plaintive, sometimes urgent, even angry at times, he touches the full range of human emotion in an almost limitless variety. And while Bogoluboff occasionally doubles his voice an octave higher with female background, his true partner is Richard Arrigo, the eloquent rock guitar stylist who provides a powerful counterpoint throughout the album. The album kicks off with “Nostalgia of a White Army Officer”, its infectious dance rhythm which pulling the listener into his world at the very first note. “My Desired Path in Life” offers an entirely new and rich perspective through a ballad that lingers long after the track is over. “Queen” has both sarcasm and wit, and a hook that will have you singing in Russian before the second chorus. The romance and melodic complexity of “My One and Only One” is deep, difficult to ignore and equally hard to forget. A personal favorite “Brothers, War is War” is a hybrid of country and classic theater, and to the ears of this writer might have been the love child of Kurt Weill and Merle Haggard. The next “By The Sea” is an anthem with an expansive chorus that has size and an energy that Bogoluboff aptly compliments with a real orchestral arrangement.He dips into a reggae feel and an agitated rock guitar accompaniment in “Sorry, I Have to Leave Now”, then shows amazing sensitivity in the bittersweet “Girl From Lienz” replete with an oboe solo and female obligato. “The Hard Road”, about mother Russia, has the classic melodic and harmonic qualities of the music of the region then, true to form, Bogoluboff moves into the delightful “Moon Bread”: his delicious song recognizes that everyone can enjoy the nourishment of our favorite celestial body. “Gospel Song” which sounds anything but religious in the typical sense, has an urgency which gets under the skin and excites the listener towards spiritual uplift. “Konstantinovich” (Bogoluboff’s middle name), is a personal expression that reflects on the title of the entire album, “Lifetime Search”: you positively hear him, in words and music, looking for the answers of his life. In the next tune, he pledges his solidarity with all those who follow their sublime pursuits and desires, particularly “The Lovers and Poets”, and does it with melodic strength and passion. Richard Arrigo is featured on the final number, a song which might be Bogoluboff’s favorite effort, a song of hope which assures us that, no matter what the vicissitudes of life, the “Firs and Pines” will continue to grow. This final song brings to a conclusion an album, like all of the works of this singer/songwriter, in which the only constants are passion, commitment, and variety and a tunefulness that won’t let go.