A Singer of Songs "Old Happiness" (Underused Records, 2010)

Because Conor Oberst just doesn't record enough....

An album put together by a band that never met - the main tracks were recorded by Belgian born 'A Singer of Songs' (names it seems are unfashionable), with additional contributors adding their instruments and vocals by means of the internet. Is this the way of the future? Who knows, but it's an interesting idea. And this album doesn't lack interesting ideas; unfortunately one major lack of imagination mars it from the outset. Naturally, from the heart, unedited outpourings of bed-sit confidentials with deliberately lofi production and sparse accompaniment are going to draw comparisons with Bright Eyes. However, copying Conor Oberst's vocal style isn't going to give you some distance - I'm still not fully convinced that it's not Conor Oberst singing on the opening title song. Every strained vocal trick and tick is there. That it's also one of the best songs on the album doesn't altogether help. And it's not a one off - 'Stray Bullets' sounds very much like Oberst covering a Josh Ritter song, which of course actually means that there are some great images in this soft mumbled unanticipated break-up song "it was just a quiet day / hope for sun / need for rain / two stray bullets richocheted then went their seperate ways".

It is a pity that his influences are so obviously showing, as there's a lot of good in here - scratchy guitar and basic banjo overlayed with intriguing lyrics tending to the despondent and a general sense of world weariness. The use of additional contributors produces an attractive little duet on 'Road To Nowhere', with a shaky timorous female vocal credited to Tiny Ruins drifting over Becca Gordon's banjo picking. It's a mood piece as much as a love song, as an endless road carries lovers apart in a desolate emotional landscape of dust and ash. The very brief 'Little Time' which conjures up a one night stand finishing with someone slipping off, as quietly as possible, before daylight makes a random encounter turn into something more concrete ("I have to admit you want more than I can give") he sorrowfully owns up to.

Unfortunately there are also songs like 'I Shall Break That Horse' - if you're going to come right out and sing something like "so I'll just sit on this fence and wait patiently until you say hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey ...hey, hey , hey,...hey, hey , hey.." with a final total of 89 heys (yeah, I got bored on the third or fourth listen and counted them) then there really needs to be something else very special going on - but even the stabs of electric guitar towards the end of this chant just sound irritated more than anything else. But variability has always been a hallmark of this intimate, recorded on the fly, style of music.

On the whole, if you like early Bright Eyes then you'll probably quite like this; on the better tracks there's plenty of hints that there's more and better to come from a singer of songs.

Date review added:  Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Reviewer:  Jonathan Aird
Reviewers Rating:
Related web link:  a singer of songs MySpace