|
Album:
Jack Drag � The Sun Inside
Released: Monday
13th May 02
Label: Shifty
Disco
Curious
stuff. My first impressions are of Dodgy-like, laidback, summery indie-pop but
with a slight moochy hip hop vibe. It�s definitely daytime music, the kind of
thing that�s good to listen to on a sunny morning, when you don�t have anything
urgent or pressing to do. The press release calls it �heavy on the beats�, which
seems like a bit of an overstatement...the focus is firmly on the melodies, be
they guitar or synth. Okay, I was going to get more in depth into this review
before going into my little rant about beats. Writings beats isn�t like other
elements of music where there�s a sliding scale of proficiency which anyone can
get a place on if they have enough experience. It�s something people can either
do or they can�t. You either understand rhythm or you don�t, and those that
don�t understand shouldn�t try. Jack has a talent for the intricacies of the
tonal system and abstracting melodies from it, but he can�t write beats. On
every track his cheesy little drum machine plods along, slave to the quaver,
relentlessly describing the beat without ever displaying a sense of rhythm. The
only track which doesn�t kill any feeling of groove is the collaboration with
Dan The Automator, which carries Dan�s trademark beats & bass. Well no, maybe
I�m being a bit harsh. There are moments when the programming is alright. But
it�s never more than that. Anyway.
The
feel of the album in general is consistently muted, almost dowdy. One could
almost call it everyday, but that isn�t to say it�s boring...more that it�s
grittily, down to earth. At times it�s almost euphoric, but always as if seen
through a veil. A couple of the tracks blatantly reference the strange, dumb
happiness of His Name Is Alive; this is particularly apparent in �Smile on
Fire�, itself a title which could have come straight from a HNIA album. The
complexities of Jack�s arrangements also bear more than a passing resemblance to
William Defever�s writing style. This is no bad thing (to be honest, one of the
things I like most about this album), however the songs never quite reach the
bizarre, unexpected highs or grunge-worthy lows which Defever manages.
Jack
himself says the album has a dark side, which takes a little while to pick up
on. He has a knack for changes which on the surface seem to fit perfectly, but
if listened to carefully have a disturbingly ambivalent undercurrent. This is
most apparent on the title track which poignantly juxtaposes overtly bitter
lyrics with sickly sweet pseudo-choir arrangements & gloriously pompous (think
Gary Numan) synth pads. This track makes me listen to the twee-ness of the rest
of the album in a different way...one wonders whether the easy listening pop of
tracks like �April� are a veil concealing an unusually distorted mentality.
Possibly not, but I�m enjoying them more for being able to think about them this
way. Having said that, the bum synth-note in the final instrumental solo of this
track does have you jumping for the rewind button in perplexed curiosity!
The
only other artist that comes to mind is Four Tet. This definitely shares the
lacklustre melodies & blue eyed hip hop formula, however Jack�s composition is
far more developed, & the vocals add a much needed depth.
...which isn�t to say he�s a great singer. In fact, he has a very average voice,
but it sits with the music well, and the arrangements never tax his skills.
This
album was originally intended to be a full blown collaboration between Jack and
Dan the Automator, but their timetables allowed only one track to be finished.
And to be honest, Dan�s input shows clearly on the fruit of their labours, �FM
Royalty�. The beats roll with fluent ease and the guitar trips lightly around
the groove. Admittedly the composition isn�t as �developed� as the other tracks,
but this seems to work in its favour: Dan manages to focus Jack�s skills and
produce a consistent, accessible pop-song. However, I�d be hard pushed to say
it�s any better than (most) of the other tracks on the album, because at the
same time Jack�s endearingly rambling style has - necessarily - been curtailed.
This is
one of the gripes I have about solo artists: the singularity is always apparent
in their product. Whereas a group of artists will always be refining each others
ideas and developing them with their own input, drawing on their individual
experiences & personal paradigms to form a whole greater than the sum of its
parts, one person alone has a much smaller pool to draw upon and therefore their
music will always sound confined, never reaching the heights of bands or
collaborations. Unfortunately this is true of Jack�s work; different states of
mind are expressed through the tracks, but always they bear the same
quintessence, always the same types of chords and rhythms, always the same
cadence. Jack articulates melancholy, surrealism, joy, but always it�s him
feeling them: Essentially, this album is, for better or worse, simply a glimpse
into the soul of Jack Dragonetti. Unlike the best music it�s impossible to
identify completely with the emotion, because it�s so centred in the artist.
Maybe this is a good thing, maybe it�s a bad thing � I guess it depends on your
take on music. Definitely some of the greatest artists (which is slightly
different to saying some of the greatest music) are idiosyncratic to the point
where the real joy in listening to their music is the perverted sense of
voyeurism. But like I said, this is different to the music itself being great.
So,
interesting & strange music from a talented man, but not without its flaws. & I
do wish he�d let his dark side out a little more!
Michael Miller |
 |
|
