M. Ward is getting better - which is saying something. His last album, Transistor Radio, regarded as a tribute to a lost golden age of radio, was met with critical claim and the glee of his dedicated fans. With Post-War, he turns his husky voice to an even more varied and charming set of songs.
Post-War tackles a number of themes with an impressive maturity, freshness, and keen lyricism. “To Go Home,” one of the most immediately likable songs on the album, is a beautifully expansive song about the search for love and its futility in the face of mortality. In “Chinese Translation,” he sings of an opportunity to speak to a sage, and offers some of the most striking lines of the album with his anguished questions, including “If life is really as short as they say, then why is the night so long?” This also demonstrates his consistently clever use of words and turn-of-phrase, as he does again in “Magic Trick,” a more lively barroom-style romp based around the chorus, “She’s got one magic trick – she disappears!”
It does seem at times that M. Ward has a default song composition that most naturally involves a hushed voice, sad words and a quiet rhythm guitar, plus-or-minus some jangly accompaniment from his backup band which often instills the music with a Americana-folk vibe. His only problem can arise when one of these makes the cut with lyrics that aren’t wholly compelling, such as “Rollercoaster” here, or when there are simply too many in a row, resulting in a somewhat soporific effect on the listener. What has improved here is that evidence of these problems is rare here, by and large avoided by a dedicated attention to songwriting, and by the exploration of some different styles and pacing that still sound distinctively his own. On “Right in the Head,” for instance, he enhances a song pleading for a quieted mind for a younger brother – in contrast to himself – with some haunting effects and a lead guitar track that sounds a bit maddened itself.
Even M. Ward’s gravelly voice, by and large his trademark, seems to have undergone a subtle change. Despite his words of woe and anguish, his voice has on previous albums occasionally contained a hint of cockiness, as though he knows he stands a chance at crooning the pants off some listeners of the fairer sex. In Post-War, however, his tone seems only rich with sincerity, appropriately delivering his increasingly insightful words about the pains of life and love.
With Post-War, M. Ward has taken his considerable tools and honed them to the next level both by natural growth and by a clear work ethic in his songwriting and composition, effecting music that should absorb any listener interested in appreciating the richness evident increasingly with repeated spins. |