Music Review: Prateek, ‘’Til June’
The Boston singer-songwriter takes listeners on a wide-ranging journey of emotions and Americana sounds on his first full-length studio album.
Prateek’s ’Til June album artwork.
The term “Americana” can be a somewhat squishy label; bigger and more vague than a typical genre and very open to interpretation. That’s part of its appeal for me. I originally thought of it as encompassing non-mainstream and old-time country and folk, but our adventures keep taking us farther afield, into blues, indie rock, roots rock, old-school R&B, even retro and alt pop.
Many current artists take elements from defined genres and meld them together into blended sounds. Less common is an act like Boston singer-songwriter Prateek. On his first full-length studio album ’Til June, which comes out this Friday, April 7, he demonstrates his love and command of the breadth of Americana music by putting together a collection where nearly every track is a prime example of a different aspect of American roots music. Not since Mark Joseph’s 2021 release Vegas Motel have I been this surprised and charmed by every twist and turn of an album.
A concept like this only works if an artist is exceedingly talented and fully committed to nailing each style. Prateek not only benefits from a stellar group of studio musicians brought together by producer Sean McLaughlin, he himself digs deep vocally, displaying a range from silky-smooth crooning to an unrestrained roar and everything in between. Yet despite the many ways he deploys this instrument, Prateek’s voice is unmistakable, tying together an otherwise wide-ranging collection of songs.
The album opens with “Diamonds,” a smoldering, down-and-dirty blues song about wallowing in the pain of a recent breakup (“Don’t you tell me that you don’t know / How it burns to cry alone”). Lyrically this is the most imagery-driven song on the album, as Prateek sings vividly and viscerally of tear-stained sheets, knees hitting the floor and fingernails digging into skin. Moments that would otherwise seem sensual instead paint a picture of hopeless agony.
Prateek. Photo courtesy of the artist.
That bluesy burner transitions into an uptempo Americana rocker with a sound that lands somewhere between The Gin Blossoms and Jason Isbell. As fun and disarming as it is to hear so many styles from a single artist on one album, the subject matter of ’Til June doesn’t shy away from serious and sometimes heavy topics. The songs tackle everything from racism to alcohol addiction, and “The Gang’s All Gone” pulls no punches in its frank lyrics about the unglamorous reality of being a barfly. “No one likes you when you’re stoned,” it begins, “They just hate to be alone.”
So find a bar, find a girl, drink your beer, rule the world
Stay up late, drive home high
Forget your job, forget the bills, run your mouth, chase the thrills
And swear that this is gonna be your year
The gang’s all gone and you’re still here
From there we’re pulled into a slow, simmering heartbreak song, “You’re Still on My Mind.” Prateek’s vocals build gradually to an anguished climax, and the lingering tempo and accompaniment from a full horns section give the track an old-school soul/R&B vibe.
“If You Want a Man” enters classic country territory, starting out as an unhurried waltz. The one-sided conversation with a lover who’s trying to make amends features a surprising tempo and time signature change when it’s time to deliver the kiss-off: “If you want a man to tell you you did nothing wrong / Honey just move along.”
Giving off melancholy alt-country/folk vibes similar to Cowboy Junkies, “Wrong” is a standout track on the album, not only for its sound but because its subject matter is so unique to Americana. Prateek, who’s Indian-American, opens up about a painful aspect of racism. “I’d always grown up believing I was ugly because I’d never heard anyone who looked like me being described as attractive,” he explained in a Bluegrass Situation article. “Wrong” depicts an uncomfortable encounter that brings that feeling to the forefront in the most vulnerable setting imaginable, the bedroom:
Bite my tongue and grin
All my life I’ve been in
The wrong place, wrong time, wrong skin, wrong eyes
Wrong house, wrong home, and always alone
That profoundly wrenching song is followed up by the most lighthearted and playful on the album, the bouncy mandolin- and banjo-infused “If I Were a Dog.” As the title suggests, it’s a silly but touching daydream about how much simpler and more fun life would be as a dog: “I’d like to jump in every puddle and howl at every star-filled sky / I’d like to always get in trouble, I’d like to be somebody’s friend until the day I die.”
Prateek. Photo courtesy of the artist.
The next track, “No Fun,” sounds most similar to “The Gang’s All Here,” which feels deliberate since it could also be viewed as that song’s sequel: “I quit drinking three years ago when it was plain to see / That therapy did more for me than booze and smokes and weed.” The cheeky chorus of this exuberant song shrugs, “Guess I’m just no fun.”
The album changes pace with the dreamy, brooding title track, another one that brings Cowboy Junkies to mind. Building layers of yearning vocals and fuzzed-out electric guitar capture the malaise of late winter, combined with the ache of missing someone: “Damn these blizzards, damn the cold / Damn the distance between our fingers …”
The album shifts gears once again, this time into a classic country waltz complete with piano and pedal steel. With its melancholy lyrics and slow-loping pace, I could easily see “You’re No One Til Someone Breaks Your Heart” having been a hit for Jim Reeves or Ernest Tubb in the early 1960s. It’s a refreshingly straightforward country song that fires on all cylinders, especially in Prateek’s vocal delivery.
Apparently deciding not to give listeners any more whiplash, Prateek ends the album on another waltz, “When You Were Loved.” In contrast to the lush arrangement of the previous track, this one has the rawness of a demo, giving every line an intimacy and emotional impact that might bring a lump to your throat:
Every dream that disappears when you wake up
Every chill deep in your bones
Every road you walk along
Will remind you of when you were loved
Packed with sonic surprises and affecting lyrics, ’Til June is the kind of album you can play end to end without ever feeling restless, because nearly every track is a complete change of pace. Every song is so successfully and sincerely rendered, it feels like a complete expression of Prateek’s varied abilities and musical sensibilities. It’s an ambitious undertaking and a creative risk that paid off in spades.
Carol Roth. Photo credit: Dan Lee.
Carol Roth is a full-time marketing copywriter and the primary music journalist and social media publicist for Adventures in Americana. In addition to studying the guitar and songwriting, Carol’s additional creative side hustle is writing self-proclaimed “trashy” novels under the pseudonym T.A. Berkeley!
