Paul Newman - Machine is not Broken
(My Pal God)
My first exposure to the band Paul Newman at a live show a bit over a year
ago left me very happy and pleased. I never thought one of these
post-rock/mostly-instrumental bands that were becoming more and more
common at the time could produce such a thrilled mental state, especially
in a live setting. I don't think there's anything intrinsically wrong with
purely, or as is the case with Paul Newman, mostly instrumental music, but
often it seems like the refusal of certain "indie rockers" to write lyrics
is symptomatic of a deeper lack of creativity. It's as if the reason for
disregarding words and sung melody isn't because the music doesn't require
them; it's because the artist just plain has nothing to say. Much of the
music itself seems mute, incommunicative, and afraid to bring attention to
itself. Though Paul Newman fit fairly neatly into the
instrumental/post-rock niche, I found that they greatly exceeded my
expectations for the style. They were focused, sharp, and full of energy.
The sounds were bright and ringing with clean guitar and crisp, precise
drumming. From time to time their music was even was even a bit crazy and
daring. Watching the band I occasionally found myself grinning and even
giggling as a result of some wild thing they'd done. But the music always
made sense and had a kind of prettiness to it. It never crossed the
border into seemingly random and musically vacuous math or stunt-rock à la
Don Caballero or A Minor Forest. I felt I'd found a band I could like and
be excited about.
By the time I first heard Paul Newman, they'd already produced a small but
quite good group of recordings, including two full length releases and a
handful of EPs and singles. Since then, Paul Newman the band has done
little, however the various individual members of the group have kept busy
with various moves to different locations throughout the country and
various other bands and projects including Drums and Tuba and the
excellent Rhythm of Black Lines. (I believe EVERY member of Paul Newman is
currently in at least one other band. The members' desires to explore
various other directions musically seems consistent with the one most
common criticism of Paul Newman's older material--a bit of a lack of
consistency and a tendency to sound from one song to the next like two or
three completely different bands.) I even heard rumors that the band had
broken up, but no, they were just in the kind of inactive state every
band with members strewn about the United States has to be in. Then this
year they reconvened for 2 weeks
to write, practice and record their latest LP, Machine Is Not Broken.
This album is definitely more homogeneous and probably somewhat prettier
than any of their other releases. Unfortunately, it seems to also lack
the energy that could often be found in previous Paul Newman work. There
are fewer "inspired moments" in the music, and the band seems to be moving
towards rather than further away from the pack of similar bands. Machine
is Not Broken feels like what it apparently is--a recording that was
hurriedly produced just so the band could extend its life with a new
release. It doesn't sound like any of the band members had any really
great ideas that were just begging to be recorded. And most likely if
they did have any such ideas, at this point they would use them in one of
their other groups.
Despite it's half-heartedness, the album really is not at all bad. Fans
of Tristeza or previous Paul Newman tourmates Dianogah and Yind will most
likely not disapprove of the music here. But Paul Newman performs these
minimal instrumentals with less mystery and atmosphere than Yind, less rock
than Dianogah, and less flow than Tristeza. While there's nothing really
wrong with the album, I'm sad to say that I just can't imagine that it's
anything anyone really "needs" to have in their collection. But for the
person who has to have that weekly fix of new music to listen to while
going to sleep, it would definitely be worth picking up.
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