It is hard for me to pick out favorite songs on these albums; it is such fun just sitting back and listening to all the places that Brian Olive takes the listener. I will single out “Back Sliding Soul” as a particular favorite; this song is featured on the Alive Records compilation album, Where is Parker Griggs?.
Patrick Rodgers writing for Nashville Scene has this to say about the Brian Olive oeuvre: “Think high cooing vocals and airy harmonies above bluesy, gum-smacking grooves that simmer and shimmer, augmented on phenomenal cuts like ‘Back Sliding Soul‘ by arrangements full of ear candy — underwater boogie piano, rump-rocking percussion, shrapnel blasts of rubbery guitar and greasy sax, and Esquivel-like electro-doinkage (wait, is that really a bagpipe?).”
Mark Deming was just as enthusiastic about this album in his Allmusic review: “Two of Everything doesn’t sound like [Brian] Olive has turned his back on his blues-based earlier work, but he is veering in a different direction; the results sometimes suggest a Midwestern take on Northern soul as Olive and [Dan] Auerbach throw just a little pop polish on Olive’s vocals and let the pianos and saxophones give the music a subtle but distinct retro feel, even as the steady pulse of several tunes nods politely to hip-hop. But even as Two of Everything travels down a smoother road than its precursor, it still sounds organic, committed, and heartfelt; and Olive sure knows how to write a memorable tune: ‘Strange Attracter’ faces a chunky, T. Rex-style guitar figure against an insistent piano-and-drum pattern that fills up the dance floor; ‘Back Sliding Soul’ suggests an unlikely but effective collaboration between NRBQ and Mark Ronson; ‘Left Side Rock’ bounces hard Southern funk rhythms off aggressive horn samples, and ‘Lost in Dreams’ is a beautifully languid bit of stoned soul love pleading. With Two of Everything, Brian Olive is two for two in making smart, distinctive albums that push his blues and R&B influences in unexpected, compelling directions, matching and building on the strength of his debut.”
(February 2015)
