Now it’s All This! Review on Absolute Power Pop
10 years later, Swirsky and Ruekberg have decided to commemorate their partnership by releasing Now it’s All This!*, a 2-disc compilation that consists of those two full-length albums on disc one, and a second disc that features an EP of 6 new songs and 4 additional “unplugged” (I use the quotation marks because they don’t sound that unplugged) versions of tracks from the first two albums.
Read MoreNow It’s All This! Review on Hollywood in Toto
Now, they’ve remastered the pair and packaged them with a sparkly new EP. “Now It’s All This!” features six new tracks plus four unplugged takes on Button classics like “Picture” and “It’s No Secret.”
Writing melodic pop comes naturally for Swirsky.
“I grew up listening to that kind of music,” Swirsky says. “Two and a half minute pop songs. The hook came around three times. That’s what I deeply loved.”
Think not just The Beatles but The Monkees, The Byrds and Mott the Hoople.
Read MoreNow It’s All This! Review on 50thirdand3rd.com
“Now It’s All This” is a wonderful encapsulation of what the Red Button stands for. Hooks, harmonies, and catchy melodies are all addictive mind candy for those with that sweet tooth for pop, and it’s all found right here. I like to call it “Buttonmania”, and with this collection from the Red Button, it’s going to spread.
Read MoreNow It’s All This! Review on Pop Dose
The bottom line is Seth Swirsky and Mike Ruckberg are two dynamic songwriting masters/talents, full stop. One listen to The Red Button’s new Jem Records release, Now It’s All This!, will tell you all you need to know – all this musical goodness is courtesy of The Red Button.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Read MoreNow it’s All this! Review on Power Pop News
The remastered discs make Now It’s All This! Something of a retrospective, too. There’s something here for everybody. Speaking of which, everyone has that friend who no longer listens to new music because “they don’t record anything good any more”. Send them a gift. Buy then a copy of Now It’s All This! And let ‘em know what they’ve been missing. They’ll love you for it.
Read MoreNow It’s All This! Review on Beatles Freak
This album is power-pop at it’s very best. It’ll take you back with the good feelings of the songs from the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s while still being able to stand up to the very best in today’s pop music. Whether you download it or buy the actual CD, you’re going to love it! And for that reason…
I rate this CD, 4 out of 4 Beetles!
Read MoreNow It’s All This! Review on hearasingle.blogspot.co.il
The six new songs leave you hopeful of a third album from the duo. With the exception of Solitude Saturday, these songs are even more Lennon McCartney like and the former could be Al Stewart. I really can’t recommend this double disc affair any higher than just to tell you to get your wallet out tout de suite.
Read MoreNow It’s All This Review on powerpopaholic.com
The new material is absolutely consistent, “Can’t Let Candy Go” and “Tracy’s Party” has the Rickenbacker riffs, and hook-filled melodies that never get old. The gentle jangling ballad “Tell Me It’s Over” is a heartbreaker about waiting for expected rejection. Seth’s winsome “Solitude Saturday” has a rich orchestral approach, and the title track is a fitting finale. The unplugged tracks are very close to the originals, but “Genevieve” actually sounds much better without the studio mixing. We have already reviewed The Red Button’s She’s About To Cross My Mind, and As Far As Yesterday Goes and it goes without saying this talented duo is essential listening.
Read MoreNow It’s All This!
The new 2-cd RETROspective comes out October 20th! It includes the first 2 albums remastered plus an EP of 6 brand new, sparkly pop songs along with 4 acoustic rarities. Liner notes by Chris Carter. BUY ON AMAZON Track Listings Disc: 1 1. Cruel Girl 2. She’s About To Cross My Mind 3. Floating By 4. She’s Going Down 5. I Could Get Used to You 6. Hope’s Up 7. Can’t Stop Thinking About Her 8. Gonna Make You Mine 9. Ooh Girl 10. Free 11. It’s No Secret 12. Caught in the Middle 13. As Far as Yesterday Goes 14. Picture 15. Girl, Don’t 16. Easier 17. Sandreen 18. On a Summer Day 19. She Grows Where She’s Planted 20. You Do Something to Me 21. I Can’t Forget 22. Genevieve 23. Running Away Disc: 2 1. Can’t Let Candy Go 2. Behind a Rainbow 3. Tell Me It’s Over 4. Tracy’s Party 5. Solitude Saturday 6. Now It’s All This 7. Genevieve (Unplugged) 8. Picture (Unplugged) 9. As Far as Yesterday Goes (Unplugged) 10. It’s No Secret...
Read MoreReview in Golden Mixtape
As a hardcore Beatles fan and Lennon-lover myself, I am usually skeptical of bands that obviously emulate the holy quadrumvirate. However, listening to The Red Button’s sophomore album As Far As Yesterday Goes was like taking in a breath of fresh air. Singing and songwriting duo Seth Swirsky and Mike Ruekberg proudly exhibit their expertise with the three-minute pop song tradition on their newest release. With it’s upbeat, Lennon-esque vocals and bubblegum-pop melodies, The Red Button reinvents that British Invasion-style of sound in a way that preserves the original appeal of the sweet 60s music without showing its age.
Read MoreReview on allmusic.com
Typically, artists pay homage to their pop/rock heroes or an era that is special to them by creating collections of crafty covers. This is way too typical and unimaginative for the brilliant, versatile, and agile musical minds of Seth Swirsky and Mike Ruekberg, who follow up their critically acclaimed 2007 indie debut, She’s About to Cross My Mind, with an equally brilliant set of originals that draw from an even richer, more stylistically expansive well than their previous work did. The mid-’60s Beatles mystique is still there, to be sure; with its feisty harmonica and shimmering guitars; the rousing opener “Caught in the Middle” is a contemporary equivalent of what might have happened if Lennon and McCartney had come up with sharper lyrics and a more dynamic groove on “I Should Have Known Better.”
Read MoreReview in Daggerzine
AS FAR AS YESTERDAY GOES- (GRIMBLE RECORDS)- OK,. So it’s been four years since their smashing debut (SHE’S ABOUT TO CROSS MY MIND) and in that time one half of this duo, Seth Swirsky, released a solid solo record and of these 12 songs, 9 of them were co-written by Swirsky and his partner Mike Ruekberg (while Swirsky wrote the other 3 by his lonesome) and these two just seem like they were born to write music together, they just do.
Read MoreReview in Amplifier Magazine
Call it déjà vu. Or merely truth in advertising. After all, when the Red Button titles their sophomore set As Far As Yesterday Goes, the intent couldn’t be clearer. The Lennon-esque vocals, the cooing harmonies, the seductive slide guitar… even the handclapped rhythms – all of it suggests the early Merseyside sounds of the Beatles and their fellow Anglophile invaders — Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Searchers and the Hollies among them. Given the Red Button’s Brit pop propensity, the similarities in sound are all but unmistakable.
Read MoreReview in popmatters.com
If album titles are any indication, the Red Button – Seth Swirsky and Mike Ruekberg – are obsessed with time. To wit, 2007’s She’s About to Cross My Mind and its new follow-up, As Far As Yesterday Goes. Almost as much as they are with girls; they are a power pop/singer-songwriter duo, after all. Taking that temporal fascination into account, it’s no surprised that the band flipped forward a few calendar pages from its debut’s ‘60s popisms for the McCartney/Emitt Rhodes-style ‘70s singer-songwriter vibe on As Far As Yesterday Goes. Clearly indebted to the aforementioned musicians, as well as in league with current pop craftsmen with a Nixon-era pop bent like Matthew Sweet, Butch Walker, Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger, and Brendan Benson, Swirsky and Ruekberg deliver a dozen perfectly shined pop gems. A little Rickenbacker jangle, some piano, handclaps, the on-call string section, it’s all here and all perfectly in its proper place.
Read MoreWrite on Music: Don’t Overlook The Red Button’s Latest Album
Nearly four years on now, the singing/songwriting duo of Seth Swirsky and Mike Ruekberg has returned with The Red Button’s sophomore LP, As Far As Yesterday Goes (Grimble Records). Where its predecessor for the most part evoked a Merseybeat vibe, this effort reflects far broader influences, its melodic-pop foundation at times incorporating the quirky psychedelia of mid-to-late-‘60s Donovan and Harry Nilsson (“Picture,” “Genevieve”) along with some of the ornate textures of Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys (“On A Summer Day”) and the finessed riffage of early-’70s George Harrison (“Easier”).
Read MoreTeenage Kicks: Red Button For President
Double digit unemployment. Iraq. Afghanistan. Bailouts. Sex Scandals. Mind-numbingly bad reality TV. Every time you turn on the TV, open up the newspaper or fire up the latest app to keep you up on current events, it seems that only news can break your heart. Well saddle up losers, because it’s time for the antithesis of all that with the return of The Red Button and their shimmering new release, As Far As Yesterday Goes.
Read MoreReview on onechord.net
This entry is also a reminder to myself. I need to order the new The Red Button album asap. The debut album She’s About To Cross My Mind was a slice of 60′s influenced power pop heaven and the follow-up As Far As Yesterday Goes has been out for a while now. Based on the sound samples on The Red Button website, Seth Swirsky and Mike Ruekberg have once again created a fabulous pop album.
Read MoreReview on scribblers.us
Beatle-esque is such a broad term, so casually dropped, that you hardly ever expect it to mean Beatles VI or Beatles ’65 or Rubber Soul—the gentler, hypermelodic, harmonica-enhanced side of Fab. Even weirder, you can break down The Red Button album to Paul-like songs, John-like songs and George-like songs. A more contemporary big comparison name that comes to mind is Jon Brion, who (like The Beatles) had nothing to do with this, but whose specialty is crisp analog recording and clear-as-pinged-glass harmonies. Beyond the obvious, though, The Red Button—an industrious two-man band—stands firmly on its own four feet, bringing in influences and original thoughts that stimulate whole new sounds and textures. Without ever getting downbeat.
Read MoreAs Far As Yesterday Goes is Availiable Now in Limited Edition Vinyl
Seth Swirsky of The Red Button holds up a copy of the vinyl version of the new Red Button record, As Far As Yesterday Goes.
As Far As Yesterday Goes – Review in Blog Critics Music
Swirsky and Ruekberg are just about perfect partners. Swirsky’s romantic optimism is kept in check by Ruekberg’s sense of realism. They combine to create catchy melodies, tight harmonies, with sound production values.
They never try to do what they are not capable of doing. They are not trying to change the music world or produce musical epics. What they consistently do is create three minute pop songs that would have been perfect fare back in the days of 1960s AM radio. The songs stay with you and are still playing in your mind hours later. They both admit they are drawn to the music of that era and it remains the kind they like to create and play. If you are going to produce music, it might as well be a sound that is true to your personal vision and that is what the Red Button consistently does and does well.
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