When I’m raving about an album I love to someone and he or she replies, “Yeah, it’s totally great music to chill to,” I’m generally pretty offended. What is that supposed to mean? It’s great background while you smoke the hookah with your homies? The only context in which you play it is sipping a margarita on the patio of your Malibu beach home? That there’s nothing compelling whatsoever in the musical arrangement, vocal delivery, or songwriting that would attract your attention enough to make you look up from your latte and copy of Us Weekly?
National Anthem of Nowhere is totally great music to chill to. This is the second album from Apostle of Hustle, the musical project of Andrew Whiteman, lead guitarist for the relatively famed indie outfit Broken Social Scene. National Anthem of Nowhere is an album of well-executed rock-pop that really does make for enjoyable listening. The instrumental arrangements are rich, from the rumbling bassline that beautifully offsets the gently picked acoustic lead guitar of “My Sword Hand’s Anger” to the horn section that embellishes the outro of the title track. It’s quite well-varied, from the slightly harder-rocking beat of “Haul Away” to not one, but two tracks in convincingly pronounced Spanish. Whiteman’s voice is pleasant and convincing, albeit a bit indistinctive. I’ve gotten the spontaneous urge to play it several times, it just doesn’t hold my attention terribly well when I do. I’ve gotten the tune of a few of the songs running through my head, but I never seem to remember any of the lyrics.
Often, I’ll scatter throughout a review some suggestions for the artist, as if they might actually read it – some things I might do differently, were I making the album in otherwise the same style as the artist and actually had the musical talent to do so. I don’t really think I’d change a thing on National Anthem of Nowhere. I can’t call out a couple of details that I think could really spice up the album or instill it with a greater sense of driving passion. Rather, I think it does quite well in the little niche of nicely varied, rich, mellow listening that Apostle of Hustle has carved out for it. I would recommend this album to a friend. Just not very forcefully. |