One of many things proved by the existence of Bob Dylan is that exceptional songs trump all other considerations. Tom Waits knows it. So does John Hiatt. Vocal quality is strictly secondary if you can write a song that grabs the listener by the front of their shirt and demands their attention.<\/p>\n
Michael David Rosenberg, a.k.a. Passenger, sings with the pinched, husky, world-weary voice of a homeless chain-smoker, and not only does it not detract from these songs, he manages to turn this seeming limitation into an asset by writing songs that fit his voice like a glove, downbeat yet melodic tunes full of stark loneliness and poetic longing. Raised in Brighton, England as the son of a British mother and a Jewish-American father, Rosenberg\u2019s musical sensibilities meld the acoustic-troubadour approach of early Dylan or James Taylor with the more orchestral, distinctly British folk-rock leanings of artists like Van Morrison, Mumford & Sons and Glen Hansard. (In fact, the first time I heard a Passenger song, I thought it might be an outtake from the soundtrack to Once<\/i><\/a>.)<\/p>\n Passenger\u2019s 2014 outing Whispers<\/i> is notable for its incorporation of strings as an added element on top of Rosenberg\u2019s typically spare arrangements. But what matters in the end, as always, is the songs. <\/p>\n \u201cCoins In A Fountain\u201d immediately establishes the vibe of the record, with an eminently buskable acoustic guitar melody supplemented by prominent vibes, bass, drums, and finally strings. And how\u2019s this for an opening verse? \u201cFear is dark but my love is a lantern, shining up like coins in a fountain \/ hope is a tree sitting on a mountain where the grass don\u2019t grow.\u201d Yes please, I\u2019d like some more of that. <\/p>\n And then Rosenberg brings out the big guns. \u201c27\u201d is simply brilliant, a bright, jangly, brutally honest summation of his present moment, the crazy road life he\u2019s living while making music. \u201cI don\u2019t know where I\u2019m running but I know how to run, \u2019cos running\u2019s the thing I\u2019ve always done \/ I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m doing but I know what I\u2019ve done, I\u2019m a hungry heart I\u2019m a loaded gun\u201d goes the chorus, before the whole band drops out to let the strings carry the bridge under an even more pointed monologue. As the band comes back in, now with a background chorus, the whole song lifts off. It\u2019s magnificent.<\/p>\n From there we move through passionate love songs (\u201cHearts On Fire\u201d), artful allegories (\u201cBullets\u201d), somber reflections (\u201cGolden Leaves\u201d), and jaunty celebrations of freedom (\u201cThunder\u201d), all deftly arranged to maximize the tools at Rosenberg\u2019s disposal. In each case, the addition of strings accentuates the seemingly organic orchestral underpinnings of these songs, with their rises and falls, rich melodies and natural builds.<\/p>\n \u201cRolling Stone\u201d kicks off the second half with gentle horns and vibes augmenting a superb song about the resilience of love: \u201cSometimes I feel like I\u2019m falling, falling fast and falling free, she said my darling you\u2019re not falling, always looked like you were flying to me \/ but I fear I\u2019ve grown a rolling stone inside of me, she said oh don\u2019t you know, the rolling stones stop at the sea, and that\u2019s where I\u2019ll be.\u201d I won\u2019t ruin the closing line for you, but it\u2019s absolutely worth investing 3:23 to hear it.<\/p>\n \u201cStart A Fire\u201d smolders along smartly, title track \u201cWhispers\u201d blossoms nicely with help from strings and background vocals before winding down to another perfect closing line, and the moving \u201cRiding To New York\u201d present a novelistic sketch of a \u201cdark and overcast\u201d character longing to see his daughter and grandchildren one last time. \u201cScare Away The Dark\u201d closes things out on a brighter note, an anthem of resilience that urges the listener to \u201csing, sing at the top of your voice, and love without fear in your heart, feel, feel like you still have a choice, if we all light up we can scare away the dark.\u201d <\/p>\n The multifaceted, expertly crafted Whispers<\/i> would be worth it for \u201c27,\u201d \u201cRolling Stone\u201d and \u201cScare Away The Dark\u201d alone; they\u2019re that strong. But like most really good albums, Whispers<\/i> feels greater than the sum of its parts; it\u2019s both a set of notable individual songs and a meaningfully sequenced song cycle that offers an intimate introduction to the world of Michael David Rosenberg. I\u2019ll be back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":33966,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10465],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-45794","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-passenger","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45794","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=45794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45794"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}