It\u2019s always a challenge for the listener when an artist you genuinely admire tries something different.\u00a0 In the abstract, you absolutely want to hear them grow and change and push the envelope; that\u2019s what art is supposed to do. When the changes are significant enough to fundamentally alter the vibe of the music, though, things can get a little dicey. Will the audience come along for the ride, or be left behind?<\/p>\n
Jean-Paul Vest, a.k.a. Last Charge Of The Light Horse, created two of my favorite independent albums of the past decade, 2005\u2019s Getaway Car<\/i> and 2008\u2019s Fractures<\/i>. On both, Vest\u2019s sound was rootsy Americana, intense yet organic vocals and electric guitars over muscular bass and drums. These albums are fresh and raw both lyrically and musically, brooding and uncluttered triumphs. <\/p>\n
After a couple of listens to baseball fan Vest\u2019s new five-song EP, I can\u2019t imagine a more appropriate title for it than Curve<\/i>.\u00a0 For this EP, largely created in Vest\u2019s New York bedroom before being shipped to Los Angeles for embellishment by co-producer\/mixer Jim Watts, feels like one big 12-6 curveball.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
The feeling is there immediately, as Vest leads off with a thoroughly reimagined new version of a song from Fractures<\/i>, the subtlely retitled \u201cSomething (Else) Out of Nothing.\u201d Featuring the same lyric and core melody as its predecessor, this version nonetheless inhabits a completely transformed arrangement rife with loops and synths, with Vest\u2019s previously jangly guitar isolated to keening, shifting single notes and feedback. Is this what Neil Young might sound like if he was produced by Thom Yorke?<\/p>\n
\u201cAlong The Curve\u201d features the precisely strummed, surging guitar that\u2019s been more typical of Last Charge\u2019s oeuvre, but the drums often skitter, the vocals have a rather languid and dreamy feel, and there\u2019s a synth figure lurking in the middle of the mix that adds an otherworldly texture. Lyrically, \u201cAlong The Curve\u201d cements the theme for this EP with these haunting lines: \u201cTraveling at this speed \/ Our love seems a ghostly, fragile thing \/ To depend on so completely \/ When the headlights won\u2019t reveal where we\u2019re going \/ Just the next few feet.\u201d\u00a0 Because you know what the opposite of love is, don\u2019t you?\u00a0 It\u2019s fear.\u00a0 And doubt.\u00a0 And insecurity.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a Dead Calm\u201d gets even spookier, an ominous rhythm pattern and eerie piano figure dominating the verses before the song blossoms on the choruses with lush background vocals and Hammond organ amplifying its dreamy quality.\u00a0 \u201cFalling, like slow friction winds down a spinning coin \/ If it\u2019s still love, it\u2019s not one I know \/ Falling, like slow friction winds down a spinning coin \/ If you ask me, I could almost let go.\u201d\u00a0 The death of a relationship, or just plain death?\u00a0 Either way: brr.<\/p>\n
\u201cLately\u201d launches with electronic rhythm section and piano, powering ahead in the choruses with heavy acoustic rhythm guitar. The lyric is among Vest\u2019s finest and most direct, explicitly about the fraying of a relationship to the brink of dissolution; it starts with \u201cLately in these too-cloudy, too-bright days \/ My love for you plays keep-away \/ Sits in a treetop from morning til noon \/ And mocks me like a high, uncatchable tune\u201d\u2014and only gets more dire from there. I only wish the captivating intimacy of the lyric was matched by the digitized rhythm section, which feels distant and disconnected.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight Around The Corner\u201d closes things out riding a foundation of rather tribal-sounding acoustic drums under a steady, thrumming guitar riff and Vest\u2019s urgent vocal. Dense percussion adds textures that remind me a little of Paul Simon\u2019s Graceland<\/i>-era world music explorations. Lyrically, \u201cCorner\u201d alternates glowing affirmations for the next generation with sheer terror at the lack of control the adults in the household are experiencing in their own lives, carrying home beautifully the theme running through this whole EP of trying (and failing) to anticipate the future from an anxiety-inducing station in life. <\/p>\n
Given that theme, I can\u2019t help but wonder if part of Vest\u2019s game here in changing up his musical approach involves a conscious effort to further unsettle his listeners. The end result of melding his intense, poetic lyrics about the rich and dangerous undercurrents of everyday suburban life with a rather eerie, electronic rhythm section is a sound I can only describe as American gothic.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
The issue for me personally comes in my perception that the groundedness and at times hyper-realism of Vest\u2019s narratives is what makes his songs so special. The artificiality of the loops and synths featured here feels like it\u2019s fighting against the very essence of these songs.<\/p>\n
That said, Curve<\/i> extends Vest\u2019s streak of lyrical excellence, a series of intense narratives brimming with nuggets of sometimes-brutal, sometimes-beautiful truth, the fiercely honest soundtrack to a suburban mid-life crisis. Whatever you make of the music, there can be no doubt about the words; they are simply exceptional.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":30777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7666],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-42451","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-last-charge-of-the-light-horse","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42451","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=42451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42451"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42451"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}