I admit it. The first time I listened to this disc — Taunton,
\nMassachusetts trio Wheat’s major-label debut — I ended up
\nscratching my head, hitting eject, and putting it back in the
\nstack. “What exactly is it you guys are trying to be?” was the
\nquestion on my mind as snatches of earnest Jimmy Eat World emo,
\nairy U2-ish rock and catchy Fountains of Wayne smart-pop drifted by
\nin a furry haze of production diddles and musical left turns.<\/p>\n
A week later, I listened again — and was glad of it.<\/p>\n
Wheat’s long and winding road to a major included a pair of
\nindie discs (notably 1999’s well-regarded
\nHope And Adams<\/i>) and a long stretch in legal limbo thanks to
\nthe collapse of Nude Records, who used to own their contract.
\nRegaining their freedom and signing to the label that’s also the
\nhome of John Mayer has catapulted this band into the mainstream,
\nand while there are occasional awkward\/trying-too-hard moments
\nhere, they’re outshined by the boldness and sweetness of these
\nsongs.<\/p>\n
\nPer Second, Per Second, Per Second…Every Second<\/i> (hereafter<\/p>\n
Per Second<\/i>) isn’t the easiest listen in the world because it
\njumps around stylistically like a Ritalin-deprived 12-year-old.
\nDelicate ballads like “The Beginner” bump against heavier tunes
\nlike “Can’t Wash It Off,” even as the dreamy\/crafty experimentalism
\nof tracks like “Hey So Long (Ohio)” and “This Rough Magic” both
\ndisorients and intrigues. Chants-over-strings meet crunchy guitars,
\nand a slow-jazz arrangement is decorated with a lengthy trumpet
\nsolo\u2026 predictable this isn’t, but worth exploring? No
\nquestion.<\/p>\n
There’s a certain familiarity to songs like “Closer To Mercury,”
\nwith its Beatlesque backbeat, and kickoff single “I Met A Girl,”
\nwith its somewhat obvious subject matter. And yet — the former’s
\nwitty, self-deprecating lyrics ring true (“Wouldn’t you say \/ That
\nI’ve been an idiot for you \/ I couldn’t shake you if I tried”), and
\nthe latter’s stuttering rhythm and spliced-in-from-some-other-song
\nbridge cleverly betray your melodic expectations. Same goes for the
\nexpansiveness and hyperactive tempo shifts of “These Are Things”
\nand the Bono-esque in-and-out-of-falsetto vocals on “Life Still
\nApplies” — they lull you with melody and then startle you with
\nshifting dynamics.<\/p>\n
The highlight of this disc for me is “Some Days,” which features
\nthe brilliant mismatch of sunny-Saturday Steve Miller guitars and
\nlaconic Bob Dylan vocals, and its companion “World United Already,”
\nanother energizing, upbeat track with strong melodic hooks. Both
\nare — thankfully — relatively clean of the production effects
\nthat intrude on some other tracks here. The only other misstep of
\nnote is sequencing the somewhat slow, unremarkable “Breathe” second
\non the disc.<\/p>\n
So what are the boys in Wheat (guitarist Ricky Brennan, drummer
\nBrendan Harney and singer-guitarist Scott Levesque) trying to be? I
\nthink the word is fresh — and I think they’ve achieved it. A
\ncollection of sparkly, propulsive alterna-pop songs that take
\nimaginative turns,
\nPer Second<\/i> is an impressive re-launching of Wheat’s
\ninterrupted career. I’m glad I came around for another try.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":26633,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6986],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-37880","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-wheat","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37880","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=37880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37880"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}