His Name is Alive - Someday My Blues Will Cover the Earth
(4AD)
The musical evolution of Warren Defever has gone from Cocteau-goth washout to Beach Boys-inspired pop, most recently veering into R&B/Soul territory. After 1998's high-quality Ft. Lake, I often joked that the next His Name is Alive record would sound like urban radio "slowjams."
Someday My Blues Will Cover The Earth, His Name is Alive's sixth album for 4AD, sounds like ... well, slowjams. Karin Oliver has left the band and vocalist Lovetta Pippen has become a full collaborator with Defever. Her voice is soulful, carrying the music with passionate deliveries and a sultry inflection while Defever's musical backing is as brilliant as ever.
See, I think Warn Defever is a genius. My first introduction to his work was 1996's Stars on ESP, a truly stunning pop record that has a high number in my all-time pop pantheon. Defever evoked the playful images of summer, the Midwest suburbs, and being an impassioned adolescent like nothing else I had ever heard. I quickly devoured the rest of his catalog, gradually growing to enjoy the gothic style of Livonia and his earlier work.
Constant progression in music is something to be acclaimed for--this is why the Beatles and the Mekons are more sacred to me than a band like the Fall. Defever has always moved as his current influences have dictated, and this is certainly commendable. I must admit that I had difficulties with Someday My Blues... at first, because the inherent accessibility of this genre is not something I am interested in.
Defever is a pop genius; his skill in arrangements is almost unsurpassed, and like Jim O'Rourke, he seems to be trying his hand at a genre that has never really been attempted by independent musicians before. Unlike O'Rourke, we feel that Defever truly loves this music; he has never hid his taste for the songs he heard growing up on the radio in Michigan.
The tone of the album is very, very downcast. Most of the songs were previously sketched out in demo form on the Time*Stereo release When the Stars Refuse To Shine, where their stripped-down nature is actually a bit more successful than on this polished "4AD" album. The opening track, "Nothing Special," is plodding R&B that sets the tone for the album with its sequenced drums and sparse piano accompaniment.
The beats are the biggest problem I have with this record; they are sometimes inappropriate for the song, though true to the genre. "One Year" delicately asks, "If you had a year to live/do you know who you'd like to spend it with?" but the sequencer is dropping strange electronica dance beats. The melancholia of the lyrics is totally lost.
"Our Last Affair," driven by a piano and strings, is a beautiful ballad that avoids the cheesy beats, standing out as a strong composition. Defever's production is incredible; if he was only producing Vanessa Williams records, Top 40 radio would be a better place. The songs remain catchy, and it's easy to sing them without thinking about the lyrics, such as "Happy Blues." Any song on here could be a huge Top 40 hit, especially "Write my Name in the Groove," which proves that Defever is still capable of writing a brilliant pop song.
Still, the strict genre focus of this record makes it suffer. Defever is not really breaking any new ground as a musician--not that he was necessarily before, but the style here is hard for me to get close to. The Americana folk influence that's graced Defever's recent solo work is absent here, though Duke Ellington's Solitude is presented with the same scratchy/old radio feel that Defever is fond of. It's pretty and very authentic sounding, and a nice spot on the album.
"Karin's Blues" is a definite low point, however--a bar-room 12-bar styled tune, it seems excessively self-indulgent and almost satirical, though the presence of "real" drums is nice.
Where is Defever to go from here? The reprise of 1992's "Are We Still Married?" hints at the full-on goth/soul hybrid that would bring His Name is Alive full-circle to their roots.
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