Lyric sheets are a dicey business for a writer-geek like me. I\u2019m often so hung up on the quality of lyrics that I\u2019ve learned not to look at them before I listen to a disc, because a weak turn of phrase or clich\u00e9d idea can color my whole view of the album before I\u2019ve heard a note of music.<\/p>\n
In this case, though, I\u2019ve been around the block with singer-songwriter-guitarist And so, when the new Last Charge disc Fractures<\/i> showed up in my mailbox just a few minutes ago, the first thing I did was pop it in the computer to rip it onto my iPod\u2026 and what did I do while the CD drive was busy spinning zeroes and ones but sit here and read the lyrics to an entire song.<\/p>\n Big mistake.<\/p>\n Because, you see, the song is the last one on this disc, \u201c100,001,\u201d and the lyric is not just brilliant but truly profound in a way that only a man of a certain age and station in life can appreciate. Being one myself, I am now stuck in a purgatory of my own making, waiting forty minutes to hear Vest sing said lyric because I do NOT cheat, I treat an album\u2019s run order as sacred, especially the first time through, and especially if I\u2019m going to be reviewing the thing.<\/p>\n Yes, you read that right. I haven\u2019t heard a note of music yet, and I\u2019m already frustrated about waiting half an hour to hear a song whose lyrics I\u2019ve just read for the first time. If that suggests to you that this album might just be extraordinary\u2026 it should.<\/p>\n It\u2019s time to listen now. More after the break.<\/p>\n * * *<\/p>\n If you think being a teenager is hard, try staring middle age in the face. All those big dreams you had have been reduced to life-sized reality — this is your job, this is your family, this is your life. No do-overs allowed. You\u2019re past halfway from cradle to grave and this is IT and what exactly do you have to show for it? A boatload of responsibilities, a household full of stress, and your friends and siblings all grappling with similar strains and doubts.<\/p>\n Having already established himself as one of my favorite lyricists working today, \u201cThe New Year\u201d quickly establishes the album\u2019s themes of restlessness and concern about time passing, the trio\u2019s skittering arrangement foreshadowing trouble as Vest sings \u201cLook out ahead \/ we\u2019re coming, coming fast \/ ready for the good old days to start at last \/ kick off the party with a laugh and a bang \/ leave your secrets in the closet \/ your failures where they hang.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cFace To Face\u201d digs deeper yet as Vest explores the nooks and crannies of a sibling relationship on the rocks (\u201cI can only speculate why you never call here anymore \/ could be advice I gave came back to bite me \/ could be you mean to but never write me\u2026 the distance between us increases as the years accelerate \/ we used to share a bedroom, now we live in separate states \/ with less to laugh about, more to tolerate\u201d). The music is another jumpy rhythm section over which Vest and producer Bob Stander layer urgent, repeating chords, winching up the tension with each powerful verse.<\/p>\n The thing you notice only as the disc progresses is that there truly is an arc to this album\u2019s story, but once you see it, no other run order could really work for these songs. \u201cSomething Out Of Nothing\u201d accelerates the tempo another notch before finally releasing pent-up tension at the chorus of a song about the leap of faith that\u2019s required both in creating a family and in keeping it going when times get rough (\u201cAll those magicians \/ they pull the dove from their sleeve \/ you and I pay down the mortgage \/ and try to believe\u201d). <\/p>\n \u201cOne Kind Word\u201d looks farther into the future of a similar relationship, Riegger\u2019s drums rumbling gently in the back as Vest decorates his precise lyrics with stark, authoritative guitar strums: \u201cOne kind word shouldn\u2019t have to last me so long \/ you leave me sucking on a happy memory until the sweetness is gone \/ I can\u2019t walk away from my faith in a good thing \/ even if it never comes.\u201d Ouch. An extended outro lends an epic, elegiac feel to this quietly devastating tune about losing faith in a relationship that\u2019s built on it. Sequel \u201cA New Expression\u201d takes a more playful, sardonic look at what feels like the same relationship, set to a sing-songy electric blues arrangement.<\/p>\n The middle three tracks push the tempo, with \u201cThe Switch Is On\u201d sounding initially like the album\u2019s first upbeat song, handclaps and sunny acoustic strums setting the mood. And then the last verse comes along and offers what might actually be the album\u2019s saddest moment, a vignette about filling the empty spaces in a relationship that\u2019s suddenly full of them (\u201dWe\u2019re grateful now for any little errand \/ marker in the void \/ but you forget your wallet \/ and we\u2019re driving back and forth \/ what\u2019s a repetition \/ in the context of a loop \/ or a needle in a groove\u201d). Damn.<\/p>\n On the next cut Vest takes on one of his chief tormentors directly, calling out \u201cTime\u201d to a catchy, Byrds-influenced jangle-rock beat: \u201cWaiting like a bully \/ at the edge of the beach \/ kicking down castles \/ ready to bury me in the sand of history.\u201d Next up, the Springsteen influence comes on strong as \u201cWorth In Trade\u201d puts the album into fourth gear, an expansive electric track in which our narrator reaches outside himself to be the sounding board for a friend whose troubled relationship is \u201cgoing nowhere in a lifetime flat.\u201d<\/p>\n Setting up the album\u2019s closing volley, \u201cA Song Like Yours\u201d backs things off to just Vest and his acoustic for a pretty tune about seeking your muse. The intense \u201cSpring Ahead\u201d unclenches gradually from there, narrating the last bitter fight in a doomed relationship over Vest\u2019s rather eerie piano and the rustling rhythm pattern set by A.J. Riegger and guest drummer Larry Eagle (of Springsteen\u2019s Sessions Band).<\/p>\n And then it\u2019s here: the closer I\u2019ve been waiting for. \u201c100,001\u201d does not disappoint; to the contrary, the way Vest speak-sings the lyric frames its poetry perfectly, a kind of hymn to the search for meaning that (hopefully) every sentient being goes through at some point. \u201cThe odometer flips to a hundred grand \/ and it feels like progress \/ the vague taste of accomplishment helps you feel a little less lost \/ but it\u2019s a random number \/ you\u2019re treading water \/ it\u2019s visually pleasing \/ but grossly misleading \/ the accumulation of mundane errands over time.\u201d<\/p>\n Fractures<\/i> displays a more contemplative side of the band that made Getaway Car<\/i>, a carefully contained intensity that contrasts with the previous album\u2019s untethered nervous energy. It\u2019s indisputably a more difficult disc to inhabit, and I\u2019m honestly not sure what this disc might sound like to a 20-year-old \u2013 maybe a bit dour and over-analytical. But for this 45-year-old, Fractures<\/i> hits like a target-locked cruise missile. <\/p>\n Fractures<\/i> can be brutal at times, but that just makes the accomplishment that much greater when Vest succeeds in capturing the restlessness, doubt, yearning and recrimination of mid-life and making it into a beautiful, messy, painful and compassionate piece of art. Albums that challenge you this directly to think and feel and get caught up in another person\u2019s perspective are rare today, but Fractures<\/i> is one — a wrenching, magnificent, thoroughly memorable one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":29349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7666],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-40911","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-last-charge-of-the-light-horse","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40911","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=40911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40911"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}