I think it can be safely agreed that the only thing likely to be more of a slow-burner than Gram Parson this year has to be Marjorie Fair’s ‘Self Help Seranade’.
Recorded in the Spring of 2002 with the help of Rob Schnapf (who produced tracks like Alcohol, Fuckin with My Head, MTV Makes Me Want to Smoke Crack, Mutherfuker, Nitemare Hippy Girl, Pay No Mind and Ramshackle for Beck) and Jon Brion (just prior to his work on Grant Lee Phillips’ ‘Virginia Creeper’ album) ‘Self Help Serenade’ finally gets it release at this summer.
No doubt spurred on by the incalculable success of West Coast wannabees, The Thrills and the low-key personable approach of out and out songwriter types like Damien Rice, Capitol appear to have shelved shelving this record knowing only too well that there’s a whole new fertile flower-loving market out there just ready to chew the corn.
Inspired by the now staple-diet of Neil Young, John Lennon, and Brian Wilson, as well as gently alternative bands like Mercury Rev and Grandaddy (just listen to the ‘Jed The Humanoid’ production steals on ‘Halfway House’ if you’re in any doubt) songwriter and vocalist Evan glides through a dozen or tracks of melancholy and spectral doom. ‘Don’t Believe’ with its weary, swelling heart takes equal measures of Lennon, McCartney and old seventies easy-riders, Bread to assemble its hoary brand of charm – as do ‘How Can You Laugh? ‘Please Don’t’ and the tenderly psychedelic ‘My Sun Is Setting Over Her Magic’. The alt-country foot tapping that ensues with songs like ‘Cracks In The Wall’ and ‘Stand In The World’lifts the second half of the album, although surprise pacy track ‘Waves’ recalls the shirt flapping indie placidness of bands like Nada Surf – and very welcome it is too, coming as it does within a sometimes cloying, sometimes repetitive air of serenity and calm. The band may labour to repeat the fanning vocal waves of Abbey Road a little often, but as recent single ‘Stare’ demonstrates there’s a darker, and more enigmatic badly drawn figure waiting to step out of the shadows at any moment.
If it does have its Achilles heel, it’s that the record is simply too nice, too inoffensive to either impress or disappoint. And that makes it a very difficult release to quanitify.