Scroll down for reviews of the latest from Lynchpin, The Sleepy jackson and True Love

Marshall Crenshaw
What's In The Bag?

(Razor & Tie Records)

Release Date: July 22, 2003

www.razorandtie.com

Marshall Crenshaw has aged quietly and gracefully. In an unassuming manner, he has gone about his business, both touring and in the studio, making distinctive music that may not have the same wide commercial pop appeal of his earlier songs. Rather, the current music reflects who he is and what he's become, a skilled singer/songwriter and a very fine guitarist. Hard to believe that it's been a quarter century since his eponymous debut arrived on the scene with an upbeat downtown energy and gems like "Someday Someway" and "Cynical Girl," but Crenshaw is none the worse for the wear.

With What's In The Bag?, Crenshaw provides ample evidence that the years haven't changed that familiar voice, while his guitar work displays more grace and finesse, exuding noticeable jazz and R&B influences. These eleven tunes are gentle and eloquent, the works of a man aware of his skills, comfortable with the tales he has to tell the world in song.

The moody and spare "Will We Ever?" opens this CD, the tale of a weary traveler longing to be home and back with his love. Greg Leisz' haunting pedal steel accents perfectly capture the feelings of this lonely night and the musical question "will we ever love again?"

My favorite here is Crenshaw's poignant post-9/11 tribute to his memories of downtown NYC, the beautiful "Where Home Used To Be." In the framework of a man revisiting where fond memories of his past were formed, Crenshaw's guitar and voice manage this emotional reminisce to perfection: "Familiar shadows remain, but they are all that's unchanged / because this whole street seems haunted now, and the atmosphere is still and strange / We didn't worry 'bout much, we never had a spare dime / this is where home used to be in a different time / I know it's hard to believe, so much has turned to dust / but this is where home used to be, and it was good to us, more than good to us." Jane Scarpantonio's cello aids this lovely memorial and prayer for a better day.

Crenshaw serves up two covers, to mixed effect. Prince's "Take Me With U" gets the full Crenshaw treatment (Marshall makes it very much his own), featuring fun guitar work and handclaps from the likes of Andy York and Eric Ambel, along with sweet harmonies from Mary Lee Kortes.

The cover of Bootsy Collins' "I'd Rather Be With You" is a noble attempt, but ultimately is less successful. It features a busy arrangement with wonderful R&B guitar lines, but somehow the vocals fail to capture the requisite funk.

Crenshaw does a better job of singing the blues with his own "Alone In A Room." This jazzy love song frames emotive vocals wherein MC captures a sultry, languorous mood: The sunlight on the violet wall / The radio playing down the hall / Believe these words I'm whispering / You're such a warm delicious thing /And now, right now, love's in bloom / Right now, it's all about you and me alone in a room."

Laughing at ill fate is the theme behind "From Now Until Then," addressing the trials of fire and quiet desperation we all face each day while "trying to make it to the end." "Long And Complicated" is about a love that continues on to the altar, beyond many plans to end it, as this woman's smile and sad eyes get the better of his heart, forevermore.

"The Spell Is Broken" is another fine tune to be added to the grand Crenshaw canon, featuring impressive percussion work from Diego Voglino. This is a memory of a love once true that now belongs to yesterday, doubt replacing surety, as the spell is broken.

"A Thousand Days Ago" is a pretty atmospheric piece, an ode to solace in traveling through the wide unknown: "Through lost empty towns / Across miles of burning desert sands / And fields of green and gold / I began to feel and understand / The wonders great and small that this world has to show / Like the promise in a new sunrise / A few thousand days ago."

While Crenshaw's vocals are pleasant as ever, the pure musical numbers here are powerful statements. In the past, he's been quoted as saying that sometimes adding lyrics can limit a song. You get the sense that Crenshaw's truly at home when it comes to "just the music," capturing moods and letting loose that inner child, allowing his expressive guitar abilities to take over what would be vocal lines.

Crenshaw is a great do-it-yourselfer, and when left alone in the studio, creates rich musical landscapes. "Despite The Sun" is a moody, noir of a piece, starting out simply and building around a minor-keyed melody. The guitar is the star here, laying down the tone and punctuating it with variations on a riff for the better part of three minutes. After the three-minute mark, Crenshaw explodes with a fierce scream of a solo.

The CD closes with another instrumental, this one a joyous highlight of a song. "AKA A Big Heavy Hot Dog" (the title is from his four-year old son) is a wonderful romp that lets Crenshaw noodle to his heart's content around a melody that sounds instantly familiar. Here Crenshaw puts his melodic guitar skills center stage, and there's no denying his immense musical talent. It only gets better as it goes, and the listener is left wanting more as the song rallies to an abrupt ending.

What's In The Bag? is a musical treasure trove for the Crenshaw fan, covering a wide variety of moods and sounds that reflect the maturity and influences of the talented songwriter. While he no longer aims to be "rockin' around in NYC," there is a quiet charm to what's presented, and impressive musical skill. This isn't about creating a commercial radio single; this is Marshall Crenshaw sharing his gifts with a discriminating yet older audience. All told, that's a very good thing.

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Lynchpin
Hand-Picked Words

(self-produced)

Release Date: July 20, 2003

www.lynchpin.com.au

This second album from Melbourne, Australia's Lynchpin is packed full of pleasant mid-tempo numbers with heartfelt sentiments. Hand-Picked Words builds on the melodic tendencies of their debut, again providing a full sound that belies the fact that they're only a trio.

Guitarist/lead vocalist Andy Kirkland, drummer Glen King and bassist Dave Stevens have been together for a decade or so, and the tight sound reflects that long-term togetherness. While their previous effort was lauded in the U.S. and Japan, they've remained a fairly well kept secret in their native Australia. This collection of pretty and well-produced songs should change that.

Shane O'Mara (IceCream Hands) and Richard Pleasance (Paul Kelly, Suzanne Vega) produced and mixed the new one, while Jonathan Wyner (Aimee Mann, Nirvana) mastered it. This team has brought a suitably lush feel to the music, while still able to maintain an intimacy that serves the songs.

"So Damn Obvious," the album's first single, is a cute, upbeat tale of one who is oblivious to the "head over heel" attentions of a woman he thinks is out of his league. Already this infectious song has gotten airplay on Australian radio and the band has performed it on a few TV shows there.
The follow up to that will be "C'mon Baby Now," another very catchy tune, this one exploring the difficulties of trust in a relationship: "C'mon baby now / poison me with lies you cannot keep / I'm reflecting now / and wondering just how on earth I'll sleep /
this secret's hard to keep / C'mon baby now / coincidence is just a term you try /
cheap protection from the feelings that you know you can't deny / do your rules still apply?"
Trust is also the subject of "Under My Guard," a sweet ballad about the inadvertent armor we create around ourselves in relationships. This song is driven by the rhythm section of King and Stevens, and features some nice organ work from guest Matthew Vehl.
Lynchpin knows how to create melodic pop that resonates in a big way. "Don't Talk About Us," the CD opener, is a delicious plea for agreed upon deception. The couple's no longer together, but "no matter what they say, don't talk about us" is the request. The wonderful chorus shows by example exactly how it's handled: "I'm fine / I'm fine, thank you / thanks for asking but I'm fine / and she's fine / she's great, thank you / thanks for asking but she's fine." Dave Stevens provides some impressive bass work on this one.
Musically, Lynchpin's sound references the early work of Crowded House, with Kirkland's vocals reminiscent of a younger Neil Finn. The song "Inside Her Head" (and its arrangement) sounds very much like it could be a Finn/Crowded House composition, while "It's Too Late" also recalls that magical early Crowded House sound (even down to the organ solo).

Still, Lynchpin's sound is very much their own, with harmonies and musical accents that fill the headphones, yet remain spare enough to convey the emotions behind the lyrics' intent.

Kirkland plays some sweet jangly guitar on the haunting "Is There Anyone Out There," a soft song that looks for someone in the universe as kindred spirit, feeling the same way about chasing down a love as some comet racing across the sky.

Another highlight is the uptempo "It's All Good," wherein a man is transformed by his ladylove into doing and acting differently, visiting concertos, opera, art galleries, etc. without regrets: "I'd rather shop than go to the game / my seasons tickets have gone down the drain."

Harmonies drive "Jessica," a dulcet and dear farewell to an intriguing love. Perhaps the most beautiful song here though is the delicate "Four In The Morning," a tune of wistful regrets and lonely longing bathed in strings (ably provided by Mary Johnston and Willem Van Der Vis).

Playful lyrics dominate "Breathing Down My Neck," featuring lines like this: "the trigger happy locomotive that I call defense / has now been crushed by the mortar and the pestle on the bench / and you're insightful in a dubious way / and as I rifle through the games that you play."

"Why Don't You Face It," a musical examination of a doomed illicit love affair between a married man and his secretary, has a Glenn Tilbrook/Squeeze feel to it, as well as a hint of Neil Finn's "Sinner."

These fourteen songs are a very strong sophomore effort (thirteen listed tracks, plus a bonus-hidden string and vocals only version of "Don't Talk About Us"). Lynchpin has matured some as a band, concentrating on their song craft, seeking respect more than popularity this time around (though one can follow the other).

These tracks cover traditional relationship issues (trust, deception, loneliness and more) in intelligent ways, but couch them in mellifluous melodies that get put across with a healthy serving of vocal honesty and soul. Hand-Picked Words features songs that happily will stick in your heart and mind for a long time to come.

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The Sleepy Jackson
Lovers

(Astralwerks)

Release Date: July 29, 2003

www.thesleepyjackson.com

If variety is the spice of life, then The Sleepy Jackson's first full-length release Lovers is as spicy as vindaloo. This collection of 13 quirky songs exhibits a virtual cornucopia of influences and styles that, while at times seems merely derivative, often climbs above that to achieve something truly original. The intriguing choices are never less than enjoyable, and this eclectic offering will delight those seeking variety.

The Sleepy Jackson is the brainchild of one Luke Steele, who knows his pop idioms and has assembled a band to translate his visions. Steele and the band hail from Perth, Australia, and have built a following there as well as in Europe, where they've toured in support of two previous EP releases. Producer Jonathan Burnside serves as almost a one-man music machine here, lending contributions on synthesizer, guitar, piano and slide guitar (among others).

The music covers a lot of ground, often times seeming like a far more ambitious version of The Flaming Lips. "Good Dancers" is a perfect example of cryptic. It opens the CD with a George Harrison-like slide riff, followed by a female chorus singing obscure lyrics like "My heart, it's stronger than you are / but I love to watch the damage done," then morphs into a sort of Asian/Eastern theme with strings and Steele's voice as a sort of afterthought. There's even an intriguing musical coda chock full of psychedelic sounds.

"Vampire Racecourse" is a great song - pounding straight-ahead with cool percussion and bass lines. Think Velvet Underground meets Soft Boys, and throw in some phase shifting and female background vocals, some Keith Richards-type guitar and even then, you only get a poor approximation of all that's going on here.

"Rain Falls For Wind" goes beyond The Soft Boys into moody The Church/Dream Syndicate '80s college rock territory, with electronic accents. Steele knows how to write catchy songs in many styles.

"This Day" returns to George Harrison influences, a wonderful bit of sunny melodic pop with less-than-sunny lyrics that serves as homage and then some, with nice harmonies, fine slide guitar, and an infectious "nah nah nah" chorus.

Steele ventures into the mid-tempo arena with the pretty alt-country ballad "Acid In My Heart." Reminiscent of softer Robyn Hitchcock, it's a song about being conflicted: "It's true, I never had no fun with you / now there's acid in my heart / It's time to get you off my mind / because there's acid in my heart / But I need you."

Spoken poetry backed by piano is the odd choice for "Fill Me With Apples," a brief intermezzo about the old and forgotten wishing fecundity for others. The electronic/robotic near-disco "Tell The Girls" manages to re-create that style effectively, but the song seems to these ears a bit repetitive and musically uninteresting.

"Come To This" is another great West Coast pop song, again with Harrison slide-guitar influences. The lyrics don't make themselves readily understood. Steele reflects on not knowing how it has come to this, reminding a companion: "girl, it's a long time when you're running."

"Miniskirt" is a beautiful alt-country tune that Ryan Adams or The Cash Brothers would be proud to call their own (though the lyrics are sort of insipid). Steele has acknowledged Gram Parsons to be a big influence as well.

For those fond of children singing a la The Langley School Music Project, Steele has a little girl vocalist on "Morning Bird" with simple piano accompaniment. It's a pretty song, but for me, the novelty of the child singer doesn't really work.

"Don't You Know" is a pleasant mixture of styles. Electronica meets the sort of early 1980s male/female trading vocals kind of song (a la Human League). Haruka offers guest vocals here, and there's a rich chorus of harmonies (akin to Polyphonic Spree) as well.

"Old Dirt Farmer" is Steele doing his Bob Dylan/Woody Guthrie (or is it Arlo?) folk/country turn. This sounds pleasant enough, but again seems to lack substance. It segues into the closer "Mourning Rain," another brief folk turn with simple acoustic guitar backing male/female vocals an octave apart, that itself segues into sounds of morning rain.

Steele has confidence that The Sleepy Jackson is going to get bigger, that this is only the beginning, and he's most likely right. After listening to Lovers, there's no doubting his ability to mimic any number of musical pastiches successfully. However, for long-term success, he may wish to focus on say, his favorite three or four styles, and go with that.

He can write impressively catchy music, but Lovers often comes across as a little too much of everything, a whole jukebox full of different styles and influences. While it's an auspicious debut from a very talented man, The Sleepy Jackson might find moving forward that, ultimately, less is more.

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True Love
I Was Accident

(Not Lame Records)

Release Date: September 30, 2003

www.notlame.com

Historically, Hoboken is known for spawning great music. It was within this historic New Jersey city in early 1999 that three singer/songwriter types from bands past (Mars Needs Women, Shake Appeal, The Nymphs, etc.) met up for a jam that eventually would become the nucleus of a new band.

Ray Kubian, Keith Hartel and a gent known simply as The Squirrel (actually Tom Beaujour) are the talented trio known as True Love. What's nice about having three singers and writers is the variety of melodic sounds created through collaboration. Based on a mutual foundation of loving classic rock and roll, True Love seems to specialize in well-crafted power pop songs lasting around three minutes (including great guitar leads).

In 2001, they released their eponymous debut album, spent the next year backing Richard Lloyd (he's returned the favor with a guest lead here), and finally have released I Was Accident, a solid follow-up with twelve new songs.

"Burn Rubber" is a short but powerful opening ditty that builds into an eventual chorus of Queen/Jellyfish three-part harmonies, then heads out with a wonderfully searing old-fashioned guitar lead.

"Mr. Sad" is jangle-pop perfection, infectious as heck and loaded with great Byrds-like guitars and harmonies, clocking in at under two minutes total. The lyrics query this disconsolate character accordingly: "Hey Mr. Sad is your garden growing / are your disappointments blooming / have you sowed the seeds of ruin / Hey Mr. Sad have you cried enough this season / have you felt the sting of treason / have you lost your hope to reason / have you ever been faced with a smile that you could not erase / have you found the place where joy is a sin and where losing is the only way to win."

When you hear the vocals on "Now," you'll swear you're listening to Elvis Costello, circa 1980-81. This tale of a man whose wait for love is over now that he sees things clearly, has some great saxophone support from Craig Hoek, as well as a guitar lead that transcends anything Costello ever attempted.

"The Genius" is very Fountains of Wayne, which is a good thing. Hook-laden and harmony-filled, it's the tale of said genius who is "stopping where it starts, living through his art, picking up the parts of his mind." "Radio On" is another pretty pop song in the same style as better fare from Fountains Of Wayne or Splitsville.

"Ilovegirlswholoverockandroll" is Ray Kubian's moody tribute to these rock-loving females who spin his world out of control, because "salvation takes a heavy toll." Playing spare chords against the sounds of wind chimes and seagulls, Kubian achieves interesting effects.

"Heartache To Come" is another effective rocker, mixing a Costello sensibility with the likes of something harder and guitar-driven, telling the story of a bitter disappointment with a woman he thought was the one: "Take a look around where this moment has found us / it didn't take long, my love / and now I never thought you'd get so far from me / hard to see, bye-bye."

While most of the songs are upbeat, True Love does manage a ballad with "Don't Mean Anything." This song, which sounds pleasantly sweet, has lyrics that don't seem to mean much of anything either, more like some overheard argument that lacks a focal point.

"Throwing Back The Ring" is another in the Elvis Costello vein, a truly delicious piece of ear candy about a muck of a predicament that features sweet harmonies and an accomplished guest lead from Richard Lloyd. You have to like the quiet desperation of a song with a chorus that asks: "Oh my God, all of the shit that's going on / is there anything left at all?"

"Service of the Knife" is an odd slower tempo song (after several listens I won't even attempt to analyze the lyrics - it's your guess) that features producer Wayne Dorell on keyboards, grand harmonies, and yet another fine guitar solo. True Love prove from track to track just how well they create memorable songs with enormous hooks.

"Riot Helmet" and "Time Dog," the final two tracks, seem a bit weaker than the earlier songs, more than serviceable but less ambitious melodically. "Time Dog" explores some different sonic territory, though, and features octave-apart vocals.

I Was Accident delivers on the promise of True Love's debut CD and then some. At its best, this is classic guitar-driven rock-and-roll with hooks aplenty and harmonies that please. And while some of the lyrics could stand improvement, the words never get in the way of the big sound. True Love's triple songwriter attack works well; I look forward to seeing and hearing them develop their many musical talents further in the years to come.

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