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Dear reader, in case you haven't yet bought the one folk'n'roll record you buy every year - stop searching and take this one. You won't need another one. With the help of guests like Steve Wynn (as co-producer) and Jane Scarpantoni (inevitable if it gets to playing cello on a record of the genre) Chris Cacavas managed to make this marvelous record like a thundercloudy summer day that we had been waiting for so badly. 'Anonymous' is the Green On Red founder's fifth album since he left the influential psych-country-band in 1992 and his first one without his band Junkyard Love. No wonder that this record is somewhat quieter than 'New Improved Pain' or the masterpiece 'Pale Blond Hell'. But that doesn't reduce the intensity and heaviness of his songs. On this record you're getting the essence of Chris Cacavas - his high voice which sounds a little lamenting but never desperate, lyrics full of irony dry like a desert, wonderful ballads ("Sullen"), rough psych'n'country-rock ("Anonymous", "You Gonna Pay") which should make feel (every fan of) Neil Young happy, complicated guitar solos, and simple but catchy melodies. What more could you wish from a singer/songwriter? (5 out of 6 stars)
Albert Koch, German 'Musikexpress/Sounds', August 1997, p. 50 (translation: Derk Bienen).
Quiet songwriting at the highest level. But Chris Cacavas is not a star.
He could always rely on the fact that surprised critics would applaud him - whether it was for Green On Red's psychedelic folk rock or his appearances as guest musician on records by Steve Wynn or Giant Sand. So no one should be surprised by "Anonymous", Cacavas' first solo album in eight years. And yet... Cacavas, who lives in California, this time has slowed down a little in order to give his careful swinging melodies more space and to establish a fine tuned arrangement. The best example probably is the epic "Anonymous" which appears on the ME/Sounds compilation CD: The flood of Crazy-Horse-guitars has ebbed away and now the fragile song structures are lying open like starfish washed ashore on a white beach. "Of course I haven't radically changed my concept," Cacavas emphasizes, but: "It was astonishing how intuitively and creatively these recordings were made." Each of these 13 songs stands for timeless quality.
German 'Musikexpress/Sounds', August 1997, p. 21 (translation: Derk Bienen).
According to Steve Wynn, Anonymous is 'a beautiful sparse personal record, closest to Dwarf Star but very different at the same time.' Pat Thomas also compares it to Dwarf Star, 'only better'. Last but not least, Chris Cacavas says: "I'm very happy with the results. There was an instant and wonderful chemistry between Mikey, Linda, and myself."