Alejandro Escovedo has made a lot of exceptional albums in the 15 years since 1993’s Gravity, but never one quite as perfect from start to finish as that devastatingly beautiful solo debut. Until now. While 2006’s mostly meditative The Boxing Mirror marked the San Antonio-born songwriter’s welcome return after being sidelined by a harrowing battle with hepatitis C, Real Animal finds him blasting full bore through the most thrilling music of his life. Fitting, that, considering that the album (co-written with Chuck Prophet) is a tell-all autobiography of Escovedo’s lifelong love affair with rock ’n’ roll. Though not sequenced in chronological order, the songs pay homage to both the heroes and locales that left an indelible impression on his muse and music (from David Bowie to Iggy & the Stooges, and California to New York’s infamous Chelsea Hotel) as well as every band of misfits he ever made noise with (from the Nuns to Rank & File to the True Believers). True to Escovedo form, Real Animal has its share of stately balladry and mid-tempo numbers (the highlight being “Sister Lost Soul,” a soaring tribute to the Gun Club’s Jeffery Lee Pierce). But more than any other album he’s made since his True Believers days, it’s the glam and punk-infused rockers — “Always a Friend,” “Chelsea Hotel ’78,” “Smoke,” “Nun’s Song,” “Chip N’ Tony” and especially the raging “Real as an Animal” — that carry the real weight and glory. Put it this way: When Escovedo howls, “We’re gonna smoke, baby, smoke,” he sounds like a man on fire — and born again.
