Eric Terino's Champagne and Childhood Hunger is a passionate and intriguing journey into the despondent, lonely, and dark corners of Eric's mind. Released earlier this Autumn, Champagne and Childhood Hunger is primarily a piano, vocal, and synth album. It's beautifully written, and the stripped down aesthetic helps you focus on the stories Eric is singing — and boy can he sing. He reminds me of a classic rock vocalist in his tone. With his choice of vocal melodies and inflections, he also provides a sort of whimsical, eclectic feeling to his singing. The piano work is solid, and combined with some well utilized synths create a great background for Eric to deliver his stories through. The lyrics are deep, heartfelt, and speak to emotions many of us can relate to — primarily loneliness and loss. He's not afraid to cut deep or mince words, yet even when he's being blunt he manages to keep it sounding poetic. Take this line from Annus Horribilis: "This shit has cut me to the bone, I'm welded to an imbecilic throne. There isn't much left to say, just wasted breath in these hideous days". The singing and lyric writing are this albums greatest strengths - Eric is able to deliver eloquent writing in an incredibly talented manner.
The album art is interesting. It almost reminds me of a Disney movie title graphic, except it's made up of bones. Maybe it reflects the innocence of youth, and wanting to go back to that instead of being saddled with all the loss, sadness, and despair of life. Regardless, it's a simple, fun looking cover that might make you do a double take if you like to read into the album art.
As a whole, the album works very well. The songs flow very well into each other, and due to Eric's sometimes whimsical, sometimes heartfelt, sometimes theatrical singing style, it can almost feel like a musical. The album is dynamic, and has ebbs and flows, like a story. This is a really unique album, and I don't think there's anything like it out there. Definitely check this out if you're looking for a cohesive listen that's got a lot of depth.
If you're interested in more than just the album, Terino partnered up with Perpetual Doom and released a short film based on three songs off the album — The Saturnine Song, It's Not For Me Anymore, and Ghosts. You can watch it here.
Top Three Songs
Not A Hole
I have to say, I had a really hard time picking my top three favourite songs. There are so many powerful songs on this album. With that being said though, one of my favourites was Not A Hole. This is a fun, uptempo song with some great singing. Eric puts so much inflection, energy, and emotion into his singing and is able to convey a lot with just tone. This is a really fun one, and has a driving 3/4 piano background (I think it's 3/4) that helps push the song forward.
Whaling Wall
Whaling Wall has a hauntingly beautiful introduction. It uses some really artful synths to create an immensely deep atmosphere. It has great feeling, and I absolutely love the vocal melodies. It also does something really cool with the kick drum, slowly pulsing and getting louder as the song progresses until a crescendo at the end.
Ghosts
The slowest song on the album, this one is a sorrowful song about a deceased lost love. Eric is incredibly vulnerable here, and the songwriting is beautiful. The lines are pure poetry, and contain one of my favourite lyrics on the album: "I'm sitting here alone, praying to see a spark. But all I see is snow out in the yard". That line delivered over the piano melody gives you such a real, visceral feeling — it hit me hard. Along with that, the song uses dynamics really well and juxtaposes the mostly soft piano with some more intense chords and vocals to really get across the emotion of the song.
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