Many freshman albums are plagued with inconsistency, filler, and
\nclumsy instrumentals. This is one of those albums. Popular L.A.
\nclub act Chalk FarM’s debut, and so far, only album,
\nNotwithstanding<\/i>, is a tepid, poorly arranged affair. It also
\nhas some killer tracks, and perhaps the pretiest alternative ballad
\never written.<\/p>\n
The focus here is on apathetic relationships, which provides for
\nsome bitter, depressing, but powerful imagery. They basically are
\nmaking the same “elegantly wasted” statement that the Stones were
\nmaking a quarter-century ago.<\/p>\n
“The lights are low\/If the candles on my coffin let me know” is
\none of the ambiguous, perhaps silly, but all together, powerful
\nstatements which help the album along. Lead singer Michael Duff,
\nangrily laments later in the song: “Why did you never hurt me?” All
\nof his relationships have been painfully distant. He wants the kind
\nof intimate pain you see in the movies.<\/p>\n
The album is actually a nice, manegable length as well. With 14
\ntracks, at 63:32, the band doesn’t try to fill the CD, and you will
\nnot feel ripped-off to find out the album is a half-hour long.
\n(Reagardless of length, if an album is great, you will never feel
\nripped off.)<\/p>\n
But this album is not great. It brings new meaning to the term
\n“laid-back”. Chalk FarM makes Dire Straits sound like the Sex
\nPistols. These are the songs you don’t even hear when they come on
\nthe radio.<\/p>\n
There are, of course, a few exceptions, as many of you already
\nknow if you skip ahead to the rating first thing (admit it). “I’m
\nAwake” has a strong, uplifting chorus, and “Wonder” is genuinely
\ntouching. Then comes the centerpiece: “It’s Up to You” is an
\nincredible track. With this one, Chalk FarM does what few bands of
\nthe 90s can do, touch a spot deep inside you were certain no one
\nelse knew about. It makes the album worth buying, even if there are
\nas many bad songs as good ones.<\/p>\n
I take that back. There are really no
\nbad<\/i> songs on the album. Some of them are really just too
\nmellow for most people’s taste. They are also very good in concert,
\nand have a loyal following.<\/p>\n
And one more thing. Listening to
\nNothwithstanding<\/i>, I noticed how much it remindes me of
\nWilco’s 1994 debut
\nA.M.<\/i> If they can make a second album like
\nBeing There<\/i>, then they certainly have my respect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":24680,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5931],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-35884","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-chalk-farm","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35884"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35884"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}