Sometimes it’s all about expectations.<\/p>\n
It’s taken me weeks of listening and a couple of long breaks to
\nget past my own in connection with this album, the debut disc from
\nthe alliance of singer-songwriters Matthew Sweet, Shawn Mullins and
\nPete Droge. And I’m not alone — both critics and fans of the
\nindividual artists involved have been challenged by this album.<\/p>\n
The issue is the same for me — an avowed Shawn Mullins fan —
\nas for admirers of Sweet and Droge. Each has developed an
\nappealingly quirky, highly individual approach to their solo work;
\nit’s part of what makes them worth following. Here, by contrast,
\nthe individual musical personalities of Sweet, Mullins and Droge
\nare almost undetectable. Ten of the 13 tracks on the album are
\nco-credited to all three, and ninety percent of the vocals are done
\nin full harmony. In banding together, the three have largely
\nsurrendered their individuality in favor of a collective style
\nthat’s distinctly different from their individual efforts.<\/p>\n
There’s the hurdle, then, and here’s the punchline — given the
\nchance to, the Thorns soar right over it.<\/p>\n
Taking as their models ’70s harmony groups like Crosby Stills
\n& Nash and America, the Thorns wrap their voices around one
\nanother and build a series of little cathedrals of sound on a
\nfolk-rock foundation. A perfect example is the wistful “I Can’t
\nRemember,” whose slumbering melody swells under the power of their
\nvoices meshing into one of those constructs that feels bigger on
\nthe outside than it is on the inside.<\/p>\n
It’s the kick-off, Byrds-y “Runaway Feeling” that sets the tone
\nfor the album, though, with its loping verses and chiming-guitar
\nchoruses finished off with cheeky Beach Boys harmonies. Later on,
\n“Now I Know” takes the boys deeper into
\nPet Sounds<\/i> territory, setting their three-member choir
\nagainst nothing but strings and letting the listener simply wallow
\nin their perfect tone. Still, for pure “wow” factor, the highlight
\nhas to be their dead-on cover of the Jayhawks’ “Blue,” where their
\nthree voices triangulate like precision-guided fireworks over cello
\nand organ.<\/p>\n
On the other hand\u2026 about three-quarters of the way
\nthrough this disc, the Thorns start to sound like they may be a bit
\nof a one-trick pony. Yeah, “Long, Sweet Summer Night” has a great
\nlittle melody, and the vocals on “I Told You” are rich as ever, but
\nthese tracks already sound familiar, like something you just heard
\na few minutes before. The only real variety in the first ten tracks
\nis the funked-up oddity that is “Thorns,” whose chief purpose seems
\nto be to provide a caption for the cover photo (“Thorns \/ Keep
\nwalking away from it all”). These sequencing choices become that
\nmuch more puzzling when the Thorns and producer Brendan O’Brien
\n(Pearl Jam, Train, Bruce Springsteen) load up the tail end of the
\nalbum with two considerably heavier — and quite well-crafted —
\nrock tracks, “Such A Shame” and “I Set The World On Fire.” Why
\nthese two don’t show up sooner on the track list is a mystery.<\/p>\n
If, like me, you were a fan of Sweet, Mullins and\/or Droge as a
\nsolo artist who finds yourself initially disoriented, maybe even
\ndisappointed by this album’s sound, my advice is to give it a
\nchance to grow on you. Stepping back until it was possible to set
\nexpectations aside and hear this album with fresh ears made all the
\ndifference for this listener.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":26453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6896],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-37687","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-thorns","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37687","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37687"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37687"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}