The past few years Black has been writing rock and pop songs that sound more and more simple. While it’s not like his songwriting has become idiotically generic, it’s just that’s he stripped away a lot of the complexities of layers and rhythms that characterized his early solo work and his work with the Pixies. He seems to realize the power of a good simple song over a good complex song.
It’s a lot harder to write a good simple song that it is to write a complex one, but Black succeeds on most of these songs. “Selkie Bride” is pretty and whimsical. “Atom in My Heart” is classic Black, and one of his best songs in his recent bar band style.
“Another Velvet Nightmare” is a great honky-tonk style song that fits Black’s voice and delivery perfectly. The closest thing to an Alt-Country song Black’s ever recorded is “Strange Goodbye”. It’s a duet with some girl I’ve never heard off, and has practically everything all good alt-country songs have.
“Go Find Your Saint” is the song most similar to his earlier work with its descending basslines, mumbling melodies and relentless mid-tempo.
“Sunday Sunny Mill Valley Groove” somehow sounds like Black trying to make a hymn. It’s one of those songs sometimes you like a lot and sometimes not so much.
The reason I bought this album is for the cover of “Song of the Shrimp ”which I loved hearing when he played it live during the Black Letter Days/Devil’s Workshop tour. This version doesn’t match the energy of the live version but it is still a good cover.
On a few songs the songwriting alone can’t outshine the simplicity of the production and performance, but this doesn’t happen very often. The only problem with this is if you listen to the whole album as a whole; the consistency of style tends to make some of the better songs blend in with the uninspired ones.
Black is one of my favorite artists and I do like the direction he’s taken toward a slightly country and more straight ahead rock and roll feel. The first couple listens, this album bored me, but as I listened more, it really opened up. Definitely some of the strongest songs I’ve heard all year.