One of my more mercurial colleagues at my day job is fond of
\ndeclaring “I feel strongly both ways” (he actually had a t-shirt
\nmade\u2026). After giving this album room in my CD changer for a
\nfew weeks, I have a much keener understanding of where he’s coming
\nfrom.<\/p>\n
Five For Fighting more or less is John Ondrasik, singer,
\nsongwriter, piano and guitar player and all-around wunderkind. And
\nThe Battle For Everything<\/i> is Five For Fighting’s
\nlong-awaited follow-up to 2000’s
\nAmerica Town<\/i>, the disc that catapulted Ondrasik into the
\nspotlight courtesy of “Superman (It’s Not Easy),” an
\nout-of-the-blue hit whose wistful\/vulnerable tone seemed to touch a
\nnerve in post-9\/11 America.<\/p>\n
There is much to love about this album. Ondrasik has a great
\nfeel for arrangements, stacking harmonies and filling out his
\nrolling piano and rhythmic acoustic guitar playing with big, bold
\nsoundscapes of strings and echo and electric guitar and his own
\nswerving-in-and-out-of-falsetto vocals. Tracks like “NYC Weather
\nReport,” “The Devil In The Wishing Well” and “One More For Love”
\nshake and shimmer with an energy and innate sense of drama that
\ntakes you back to the best work of ’70s piano men like Billy Joel
\nand Elton John.<\/p>\n
As “Superman” showed, Ondrasik has a gift for crafting memorable
\nmelodies. And indeed, last time I looked, this album’s first single
\n“100 Years” was still perched at the top of the adult contemporary
\ncharts. It’s a standout cut that waxes philosophical about how fast
\ntime goes by and how we struggle — or should struggle — to grasp
\nevery moment. I still get a wave of nostalgia every time after
\ndozens of listens to this track.<\/p>\n
To his credit, Ondrasik and his FFF colleagues Curt Schneider
\n(bass) and Andrew Williams (guitars) mix things up in the middle
\nsection of the disc, trying out a little roots-funk with “Angels
\n& Girlfriends” and “Infidel,” and going heavier on “The Taste.”
\nThe production — by Bill Bottrell on all but two tracks helmed by
\nGregg Wattenberg — is clean and spacious throughout, lending the
\nsongs the panoramic scope Ondrasik’s approach demands.<\/p>\n
Still, something bothered me about this album listen after
\nlisten. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it until I was listening
\nto something else entirely — “The Luckiest,” an amazing piano
\nballad off Ben Folds’
\nRockin’ The Suburbs<\/i> disc. “The Luckiest” is simple, raw and
\nutterly beautiful in a way that Five For Fighting seems incapable
\nof duplicating.<\/p>\n
Here’s the problem: from all appearances, Ondrasik is a
\nwunderkind who knows he’s a wunderkind. No matter how much deadly
\nearnest sincerity he pours into these tracks, he’s so
\nself-consciously determined to WRITE GREAT BIG MEANINGFUL SONGS
\nthat much of his material comes out sounding not grand, but
\ngrandiose.<\/p>\n
The pinnacle of Ondrasik’s self-admiration is “If God Made You,”
\nwhere he somehow thinks the poetic license of an airy love song
\nwill allow the line “If God made you, he’s in love with me” not to
\nmake the listener gag. Uh, wrong. And then there’s “Maybe I,” a
\nsong in which — according to the lyric sheet — he sings the word
\n“I” at least 41 times in four-plus minutes, without a hint of
\nembarrassment.<\/p>\n
He also manages to get through a song all about Disneyland with
\na straight face, even the part where he’s dreaming that he’s Peter
\nPan flying over Neverland, where “the crocs sing ‘Superman’ till we
\ncan’t take it.” Yeah, um, nice song and all, John, but I think it’s
\na touch early to be treating it like an ageless standard.<\/p>\n
So there you have it. There’s a lot to love here, and more than
\na little to raise the eyebrows. It’s true: I feel strongly both
\nways. Maybe you will, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":26700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7020],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-37957","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-five-for-fighting","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37957","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=37957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37957"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}