Wesley Wolfe
(Odessa)
North Carolina native Wesley Wolfe tends bar when he's not writing these sparse but catchy pop songs, and one suspects that his nightly window into human folly provides plenty of song fodder. "We have different stories but we share the same scars," Wolfe sings over urgent, GbV strumming on opener "Only Ray of Sunshine," adding wearily that he knows, "how it feels to be let down/It happens so much that I expect it now."
Rather than completely wallow, though, Wolfe grabs for the hope implicit in the song's title, and that's pretty much the blueprint for these 10 songs: life's biggest promises are mostly lies, but redemption comes from going on with the damn thing anyway and taking joy from the quotidian, because every new dawn represents a significant victory. Wolfe's narrators are, in the end, too smart for their own good, and share the same cynic's dark view as Joe Pernice's over-thinkers ("In Primary Colors" actually sounds like classic Pernice Brothers). Wolfe's best songs carry the urgency implicit in the desperate search for meaning amidst so much bullshit and disappointment. "Sorry Only Counts the First Time" turns the Cure's "Just Like Heaven" on its head, opening with the memorable line "Everyday we choose coffee over suicide," while the staccato cello, glock and chugging rhythm of "Another Weed" couch Homeric allusions in classic Stephen Merritt pop.
A few songs slip past unremarkably, failing to catch fire, and the cynicism eventually accumulates into a heaviness that makes you yearn for a light-weight love song. But Wolfe is clearly a skilled wordsmith with some compelling pop songs to match, suggesting a bright - if also dim, speaking from a narrative viewpoint - future ahead of him.
Standout Tracks: "Sorry Only Counts the First Time" "In Primary Colors" JOHN SCHACHT
