Album Review of
It's Only Natural

Written by Robert Silverstein
April 18, 2019 - 12:00am EDT
Review Rating Star Review Rating Star Review Rating Star Review Rating Star Review Rating Star

It’s Only Natural, the fourth album by Brooklyn-based rockers Zan Zone, features the music and vocals of band leader Zan Burnham. In the spirit of post-Americana bands like String Cheese Incident, band leader Zan gets excellent support from his Zan Zone band mates and his electric guitar work is first rate too. Blending, rock, jazz, blues and folk sounds, Zan Zone truly defies categories, and in doing so comes up with a highly entertaining combination of various musical styles. The lead off instrumental, “For The Rising Sun” is short but sweet and provides a solid intro to the eleven track CD. Hard to believe but Zan Zone has been going strong since the early 1990s and some astute listeners may remember the band’s 2013 double album called Shorts. Putting It's Only Natural into the special history of his band, Zan explains, “I’ve been focusing on original music since at least the early 1990s. Way back then, one of my back-up singers coined the name Zan Zone, and it’s been fun to use it since as a signpost and a shingle. While much of the time, I have been the primary lead singer, over the past few years, I’ve been lucky to have two amazing singers willing and excited to be a part of Zan Zone. As I’m the producer, it’s just been incredible to have Philip Dessinger and Sabrina Clery singing on so much of this album. Of course, I’m singing as well, along with my daughter, Arianna Burnham on a couple of songs. I really like group singing, and I notice that my vocal arrangements often seem to remind many people of the great 1960s vocal group, The Fifth Dimension and the Mama’s & the Papa’s, too.” In an era of downloads of mp3 files, one can only applaud Zan Zone and their superbly packaged album. The booklet is filled with eye-catching color photos and complete lyrics. With outstanding musicianship from a range of players and vocalists, It’s Only Natural is a must hear for fans of 21st century rock. www.zanzone.com