The Strugglers - The New Room
(Tract)
With establishing himself with his lo-fi, four-track debut Done by the Strugglers, Randy Bickford moves toward studio recordings with his followup The New Room. However the only noticeable difference is in the quality of the sound; the music is still predominantly Bickford and his guitar, with guest musicians filling out a few of the songs. Which is just as it should be. Bickford excels through intimacy and candor, not through any technical heroics.
More than before, Bickford is focused on the topic of relationships, why it didn't work out and why it's so painful and awkward now that it failed. In "Old Flames," Bickford admits "when we made our peace I thought it was how it'd always stay." He sings of how not hearing from his old friend (who happened to be a lover) is much more difficult than not being able to have her back. In "She Throws Like a Girl," Bickford talks about how heart-broken he is now that the relationship is over, but, grasping at straws to make something positive out of it, finds he is finally able to call his ex out for throwing like a girl.
Musically, Bickford has moved away from overt hooks into a more country and folk style, which places him closer to Oldham and Molina than Pollard and Barlow. From the bare acoustic strum of "Old Flames" to the organ grind of "Fourth of July" to the lap-steel twang of "The New Room," Bickford shows he is much more capable at creating this type of music as compared to the rather immature hooks of his debut album. However, the absence of hooks makes the album harder to get into. The few warm moments, like the mellow trumpet melody in "Recovering" or the hand-claps in "Fall Song," are very welcome, and the album would be more inviting if Bickford made more use of them.
While Oldham and Molina is now the logical reference point, Bickford's sometimes-skewed view and warbled, unique delivery also place him alongside psych-folk loonies Devendra Banhart, Daniel Johnston, and Syd Barrett. "Fall Song" outs Bickford as an eternal child, who'd rather just be reborn so he can be told how to do everything again. However, for Bickford, it is neither an act nor an illness; it is just his ability to be forthright about his thoughts, even if it's joking about throwing ability in the middle of a song for the broken-hearted.
Bickford's second album is no better or worse than his first, and it is clearly different, sounding more mature and more country-tinged but also less warm and inviting. Given the promise of his debut, I had expected something more, either more profound lyrics and subject material or stronger hooks and better written songs. As it is, The New Room is good for the same reasons as Done by the Strugglers; it is good because Bickford doesn't hold anything back.
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