Jeremy Messersmith
(Self-Released)
Jeremy Messersmith's self-released third album handily outperforms a whole Grey's Anatomy compilation's worth of Beatles-esque pretenders. From its earliest moments - say the moment that "Lazy Bones"'s jaunty, piano-pounding swells into multi-voiced pop hedonism - to its melancholy conclusion that "This is how it has to end, so love somebody while you can" The Reluctant Graveyard flawlessly balances joy and melancholy, intelligence and intuition. This is one of the best pop albums of the year, and next to no one has heard it
"Dillinger Eyes" is the best rock song on the disc, its slanting guitars and rolling tambourines setting an early 1960s vibe. Though undeniably celebratory, the song, like most of the others on the disc, has a morbid undertone. Its protagonist is shot dead in a pool hall because of a passing resemblance to the gangster. Yet, as with many of these songs, it's the details, not the conceptual scaffolding that make the magic. Here, the secret ingredient is the bass line, a "Pretty-Woman"-ish riff that starts low, makes a vertiginous seven-step jump, then cascades down again so quickly as to miss its starting point and correct upward again. There's a hint of chaos, or at least the potential for chaos, in it, yet it is repeated so regularly, so errorlessly, that you forget the difficulty.
A taste for the baroque starts in the lyrics, but also spreads to the arrangements. Messersmith has Dan Lawonn, a cello player, in his band as a full-time member, and you can hear the two of them facing off on cello and guitar near the end of "The Organ Donor." Their interlude sounds like a Bach cantata gone surf rock, and makes you wonder why more people don't try this. Lawonn arranges a full string section for "John the Determinist," the rhythmic criss-cross of violins, viola, cello and bass underlining the mechanistic theme of the lyrics. Messersmith's words are always worth considering, but there are none finer than the first verse of this particular song: "People made of springs and sparks, humming with electric hearts, hoping for a ghost inside the shell, but if it's there, it's hidden well, all we are as is ticks and tocks, seconds in a pocket watch."
Messersmith is best when he strays farthest from the "guy with a guitar" formula, as on rocking "Dillenger Eyes", tango-sinister "Organ Donor" and string-pulsing "John the Determinist." Conventionally strummy folk songs like "Touissaint Grey, First in Life", "A Girl, A Boy and a Graveyard" and "Repo Man" are too eccentrically intelligent to be boring, but they're not as musically gripping as some of the other cuts. Still, if you've spent any time listening to Paste samplers, you know how bland and unremarkable this kind of music can be. Messersmith makes it not just pleasant but damned near thrilling.
{You can download The Reluctant Graveyard on a "pay what you want" basis from Messersmith's website (www.jeremymessersmith), so why not check it out for yourself? )
DOWNLOAD: "Dillenger Eyes" "John the Determinist" JENNIFER KELLY
