Gazing Globe is the brainchild of Cara Beth Satalino, who wrote these songs throughout a daily
ritual of meditation and then lyrical composition; while on a romantic break from her life partner
and bandmate, Chester Gwazda. The amount of reflection, observation, and ascension
throughout this album is absolutely astounding. From the beginning you’re taken to another
realm, the muted bass and picked guitar taking you somewhere you know is familiar, but yet
you’re trying to place how? A fog of memory of who you were, or a vision of who you want to
become? Either way there are mistakes made, but god damn a lot of building too, and you’re
building you.
“I’m moving to the other side I’ve mostly lived here all my life...Do you know her...Hiding in the
sun I see her face”
Satalino has such a way with words that punch you in the gut with their candidness, it isn’t easy
being this direct with yourself on tape without coming off hackneyed like a lot of other singer-
songwriters. The instrumentation (Salatino/Gwazda, Dowler, and many others) on this album is
also moving as well as the production (Salatino/Gwazda). “I See Her Face” started me on a journey of my own anxious reflection and “Gazing Globe” had no trouble keeping me there. This song oozes Fleetwood Mac, in all the best ways. The drum and bass locking into tight rhythm, the Buckingham style strumming, and finally Salatino crooning into the personal void so well, that whenever she was laying it down in Baltimore, it sent a shiver up Stevie’s spine. Finally we reach the end of the song, the build coming, and I’m ready for this amazing “Chain” style solo from the violin, but then it fades off, after only a moment, because as much as I (maybe others too) wanted the solo, Outer Spaces didn’t need it. Their meditation was done, in the end this was for them to speak and for us to listen. Maybe we just gotta chew on what it means to leave the thought of wanting something hanging there in the ether, you can always come back to it.
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| Photo by Alec Pugliese |
The album continues to rattle off hits ranging from the Angel Olsen drive of YWLGOML, so
perfectly accented with saxophone, to the REM bounce of TV Screen. Here we are speeding
down the highway of Satalino’s mind, trying to grab onto each idea and follow that vein to the
best river we can find for serenity or attempting to dam up all the mental factory runoff. Finally
we reach the end of this world with Outer Spaces; “Teapot #2” bringing us out of this album with
a John Prine-like reflection, simple, blunt, bigger than a mountain. When the album ended, as
exhausted as I was, my heart was so full. The album ends with Salatino singing.
“I want to love myself, and I want to love you.”
A 9 hour drive back from Gatlinburg, Tennessee is a lot when you’ve been on a 2 day no sleep
streak with copious amounts of fun had, but let’s make that a solo drive because your friends are staying another day and you have to go back to do something else. Now remember it’s three years ago and your data ran out. So….guess it’s time to play radio pinball the whole ride home and try to stay awake/alive. Driving out of, what is essentially, the Las Vegas of the South and hearing preachers condemn you to a life of sin really gets you pensive about every mistake you’ve ever made. At this point I’m praying for any type of radio relief to pull me out of this anxiety induced funk. Just as I pass out of preacher hell, I do some more dial dancin’ and STOP, what is this bassline?? I can’t stop feeling elated about how good it is, how much I’ve reflected on my own misgivings, and refusing to turn around even though I was probably was going the wrong way, I had no map, because now, the reflections and light were right in front of me, no mirror needed. The song was How Long by Ace, a 70’s rock diddy, but the exercise of positivity, growth and self-love it inspired is reignited again when I hit play on Gazing Globe and “I See Her Face” starts.
RIYL: Fleetwood Mac, Angel Olsen, REM, John Prine, just picking up and moving to where the
sunset touches the Tetons, “being 100% in it, dude.”
Fav Tracks: Gazing Globe, YWLGOML, I See Her Face, TV Screen, Teapot #2
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Written by Ira Mason (@spookEguy420_69)