A rainy late August afternoon set the appropriate listening mood for “Self Help Serenade”. Heavy on harmonies and atmospheric washes of electronic reverb, the band brings a melancholic milieu to the forefront of their sound. With titles like “Halfway House”, “Empty Room” and “How Can You Laugh” , don’t expect any uplifting, danceable tunes unless your jam be some wandering, opium-induced two-step to a dreamland of tightly layered noise.
Lead singer, Evan Slamka, has an overall resonate delivery that at times is embellished by production effects on one of the album’s strongest tracks, “Stay”, featuring explosive and eerily executed guitar work. Halfway through the mix, “Waves” finds the group livening their instrumentation with a quickened rhythm and a short, clean guitar solo- an energetic jolt amidst the more hushed ballads found throughout. The album as a whole would be strengthened by more of these type of numbers, dropped intermittently to offset the cerebral quietude of songs like “Cracks In The Wall” or the honky tonk flavored “Hold On To You”.
Feelings of pain and longing are certainly the guiding forces behind Marjorie Fair’s output. What saves the band from trite emo whining has to be the excellent production value, lovely harmonies and their ability to crank the feedback at unexpected junctures along the way. |