Congratulate Yourselves
When I first began compiling my thoughts about Jeffery L. Allen, I questioned if I should even be writing a review of the album. Two friends of mine recorded Allen after all. Don’t get me wrong; it wasn’t that I feared upsetting them with what I had to say. Rather, I questioned my own personal abilities as a critic and a writer to objectively review their material. I had laid down sharp standards for the likes of Radiohead, Modest Mouse and the Beastie Boys. But I also didn’t personally know any of those artists. Josh and Jeremy are two guys who I talk to regularly online (and in Josh’s case, regularly see in Phoenix). I consider them good friends, I enjoy their blog, and I think they’re nice guys. Regardless of what quality the band lends itself to, crappy or not, I considered that I might not be able to offer anything truly constructive about their album as a result of that friendship. Thus, I decided to pose even higher standards upon my two friends. If I had been critical about the Beastie Boys, I’d be even harder on Jeremy and Josh. If I’d critiqued Modest Mouse, I’d question every little hook and beat The Moon is No More threw my way. In short, I’d run my friends through the strainer.
And in spite of it all, I ended up enjoying the album anyway.
Yes, The Moon is No More delivered on their long awaited first album with a unique tale about divorce, dissolution and the depression that follows. Beforehand, 727 records could boast about groups like Nowhere Man and a Whiskey Girl. Now, the label’s two co-founders have something of their own to boast about.
The large part of that boasting has to do with the band’s unique storytelling methods, which sharply follow the arc of the album’s character, Jeffery L. Allen. Allen’s story (and two other stories the band has yet to release) adapt from Moon’s inspired lyricist Jeremy Provost’s book Sans Hands. Because of this source material the record follows a tight narrative structure. And while the music is enjoyable on its own, the key to really appreciating the songs (and on a larger scale, the band) lies in following the story they weave. Thankfully, it’s not a hard story to follow. Side A is labeled “husband & wife” and side B goes by “parents and children”, giving us a substantial clue into the album’s theme. Family dissolution. And neither of the band’s contributors offers a sugarcoated peak into this family’s tragedy. Instead, they seem to prolong and heighten the pain experienced by Allen and his progeny, focusing special attention on the younger victims of the divorce (after all, it’s the children who hurt the most). In the album’s grand scheme of things the band has taken the jaws-of-life and ripped apart the shell of a tortured and grievous family. Their bed of lies, addictions and ultimately regrets are showered out with a healthy dose of self-contempt, and we’re there to witness it all.
There are some strong moralities to take away from these songs as well. In “It’s the Children Who Hurt the Most: Part II”, the lyrics mournfully throw out lines like “drew up a prenup, thought it would cure all” and “though indefinitely ruined, we’ll be paying generously, you’ll find an end, the best of therapy”. Elsewhere, the band repeats what seems to be the album’s magic word “try” in lyrics like “when all else fails, try avoidance”. Jeremy Provost is especially skilled at reversing substandard, prepackaged phrases humanity has collected in a less then conventional fashion. With clever bits of dialect like “we’ve sowed what we’ve reaped”, you’ll be reading and rereading the album’s lyrics for any other nuggets of wisdom.
Yet, even though the story and lyrics receive well-earned praise, the music also deserves some mentioning
Yes, the music: Understand that I’m not trying to put anyone down here, but for a pair of brothers who run a self-founded record label, the music is surprisingly proficient. Odd, but proficient.
Yet perhaps the peculiarity inherit in Jeffery L. Allen contributes to its likeability. There’s a great juxtaposing of characters gathered within the album’s confines. But part of what keeps those characters together is the singularly bizarre, yet logical structure of its songwriting. More often then not we’re treated to weepy acoustic ballads, but occasionally we get a few upbeat, electrically sizzling rockers. (Not that I’m going to keep talking about the lyrics, but you should really make sure you follow the narrative structure in these instances to make sure you’re not fooled by the song’s poppy tempo.) Edgier moments like these are an interesting glimpse into the band’s electronic persona. But the real winners of Jeffery L. Allen (musically at least) come in the form of the band’s slower, toned down laments. “It’s the Children Who Hurt the Most: Part II” is one of the finest examples of this languid, careful brilliance. In songs like these, the band shows their greatest promise, hinting at an anticipated future of songwriting that can only move upward and onward. Ironically though, it’s one of the earliest compositions Josh and Jeremy Provost put together that holds the most weight.
“Come and Gone”, the album’s second track provides the perfect smash cut from the jaggedness of the album’s opener and also serves to nicely sum up the dilemma faced by our leading protagonist, Allen. I could go on and on about the levels of meaning and impact the song has on the album as a whole, but I can’t waste precious words when I should simply be listening. It’s just a brilliant little song. Like most artists waxing nostalgia about their own work, Josh and Jeremy Provost are likely to downplay the song’s significance. One could note its considerable age. In all truthfulness though, this song, along with several others, offer a glimpse into the great promise this project holds. If these softer laments prove to be the band’s most convincing efforts, The Moon is No More could look forward to a prolific songwriting career.
Nevertheless, I did say I would be critical with my friends. And even though they surpassed my expectations, any casual listener could pick out a few minor gripes here and there. A few of the songs for example tend to run a bit too short. It’s not that they’re bad. If anything, the disappointment is a testament to what kind of grip the band places upon its listeners. The quick cut-off leaves the listener wanting more. The unique music and Jeremy’s trademark lyrics manage to overwhelm such miniscule problems however and serve to make the album something more then it’s smallest flaws. When the final track ends and the disc stops spinning you realize that Jeffery L. Allen is a tale of human tragedy and ignorance. It’s about ego and scars that can only heal with time. It’s a tribute to the human experience, and it’s a mockery of everything that attempts to romanticize the human experience. Jeffery L. Allen isn’t an album; it’s a person you know. Just don’t try and avoid him.
6 comments:
Jeremy is on a business trip to Florida this weekend. I'm sure he'll comment when he returns. In the mean time, I can't wait to comment myself.
For starters, excellent writing on this review (as on the others). It makes for an interesting read, regardless of the music involved.
Second, excellent insight into the lyrics. We have often wondered if anyone would ever get what was going on here, but you captured in it succient ways we haven't even expressed ourselves. Particularly that it is both a tribute and a mockery.
On the point of the instrumentation being odd, I can certainly take that as a complement. We certainly have odd influences, and use toy instruments and other sounds on occassion.
However, in another light, I have never found proficiency in creating a recognizable pop/rock mix for our songs. The ability to make our songs sound recognizably like other songs you might hear eludes me. So, until I get more experience, it comes out as a what can only be described as a TMINM song, for lack of something to compare it to. Hopefully, this becomes a trademark of our music, our signature sound. I'm learning as I go.
On a side note, I had the thought once to emulate a pure pop radio mixing style in our music. That would be, to my untrained ear: vocals on top, drums next, bass next, and everything else fairly low and panned to the sides. This applies to anything from Brittney Spears to Maroon5. That experiment didn't work out, so I reverted to just mixing it our unique way.
I am still eager to hear any specific criticisms, particularly because we're still at a stage where elements can be corrected. Don't think for a second that something is the way it is because it's part of our creative vision. Oftentimes, it's just because we never fixed it, or never heard it in a certain light.
We already know Jeremy can't sing well, I can't play guitar, and the drum machine is not all that convincing, despite my best efforts. Aside from that, if the bass is too loud here, and the vocals too soft there, if something is distracting elsewhere or anything otherwise could be improved, bring it on. It's not too late to put your stamp on the album and get into the liner notes. We have run this by other "consultants" in the past, with good results.
Interesting the latching on to "Come and Gone." You're not the first. Our one-time drummer, Vin Bravoco, (yes, we were a real band for quite some time) names this as his favorite, and has attempted to cover it in his other musical projects.
If you're interested in the background, this song was written on a dare. Jeremy said that he could write a song in the time it took me to drive home from work. He did. I wrote the music in about five minutes, and the rest is history.
Thanks, Brock, for doing this, it means a lot.
I'll have to borrow it from Brock. I would be glad to provide any feedback.
Thanks for the review! I'm glad you enjoyed the album. There's been so much heart (mine and Joshua's) and sweat (mostly just Joshua's) poured into this project that I'm glad that its finally coming to end (though the next album will just be beginning). It feels good knowing that at least one person GOT what we were going for.
You really need to bring out the negative aspects, though. There's so much more that you could have picked apart in terms of shortcomings. Feel free to post a follow up. Like Joshua says, this is the first time he's really done anything to this extent before and there's a lot that could still be corrected before it goes to Mastering.
At some point in time I want to go ahead and type up my thoughts on each song in terms of what we were going for with lyrics and with music; why we made some of the choices that we did and how things evolved over time. That will eventually end up either being included on the enhanced CD or it will be the basis for the audio commentary that we record.
Ah, yes, the audio commentary. Are you out of your mind?!
Guys, get this. Jeremy wants to do an audio commentary on our audio tracks. While this seems almost required due to the literary and cerebral nature of TMINM songs, it is completely impractical. You simply can't have an audio commentary on an audio track. You can't talk over the things you are trying to point out.
It works for video, it won't work for audio. Am I missing something?
I think that we've already had this discussion on the blog somewhere. It might have been our blog ... or maybe it was their blog ... maybe it was e-mail ... but I remember having this discussion.
It definitely would not be spontaneous commentary; rather, it would be tightly scripted ahead of time to ensure that insightful points could be brought out without stepping on important pieces of music/lyric that need to be heard.
Or, you could just say what you want to say and have the entire album just be background music. Think of it this way, if you did a written commentary people could certainly read it and experience the music at the same time. But will they actually do it that way? Not necessarily. They may just read the text by itself before or after listening to the tracks. So in that way you'd basically have the same problem.
A part of me wonders if I just want to do it because it would be groundbreaking. I can almost guarantee you that you'll be hearing audio commentaries on mainstream artists (in a relative sense [mainstream being relative, not artists]) within two years. Why not be the first?
Wait ... Google search = "album audio commentary" ...
OK, I could find two things out there that somewhat represent what we're talking about, but not commentary overlapping the actual track that you're commenting on; I could only find supplementary commentary. That's a very different thing.
Let's just do both and end this nonsense.
First of all:
No problem Josh. I’m glad you liked the review. I was really worried that I was doing something that I shouldn’t be doing in writing a review about something two of my friends created. I thought that perhaps I was violating some unspoken maxim – “keep your eyes on your own creative work” or some such nonsense. I ultimately decided to post the review because of the positive things I had to say.
As for me getting it, I think that’s thanks to your efforts to put out a message in the first place in hope that someone would “decode” the album and discover what was lying underneath. The whole “tribute and mockery” thing was just something that came to me as I was writing the review. I was looking for something to sum up the album as a whole, and I thought to myself, “You know, this is a sappy album in one sense…but it almost seems like it’s making fun of that sort of thing”. I had no idea I was actually on the money with my summation of the album’s context.
Yeah, the instrumentation is very odd. But, I think that’s a good thing. I hear so much that sounds like so little, so it’s nice to hear something that dares to skirt the edges of “acceptable instrumentation”.
It’s interesting to think that you were going for the “conventional” sound when mixing the CD. There are little bits here and there, particularly in “Come and Gone” that sound very conventional music wise, but the overall mix is obviously anti-conventional. But hey, if it works, it works.
I’ll come up with some solid criticisms about the mixing. Mostly, I was just focusing on the music itself and the writing in my initial review – so I bypassed criticisms with regard to the mixing. There are little things here and there that I’d like to be louder/quit. Ultimately, I just need to sit down with some headphones, the CD and a pad of paper and write down each instance that I find something I’d suggest a change for.
And “Come and Gone” is great. It’s a little short to be a single, but it’s probably one song I can think everyone would love regardless of how they felt about the album.
Gabe – I’ll give you the album next time I see you.
Jeremy – I know exactly what you mean. It’s so frustrating sometimes to come up with a concept that makes so much sense to you, and then get the feeling that it makes absolutely no sense to everyone else. I’m glad I was able to “tune in” on what it was you and Josh were channeling. It’s distinct enough that I think I won’t be the last to understand it.
Like I said before, I promise to list some “downsides” of the album so you guy’s can correct it before mastering. I think any downsides are merely in term of sound, and I was primarily focusing on the theme and style. I’ll have to switch gears and provide a little bit of a “side review” on the mix.
Ok, so the audio commentary was discussed on your guys’ blog. I don’t remember the exact post, but I’d bet all my marbles that it was discussed on “Try Avoidance”.
Anyhoo, it seems like a very abstract idea. I mean, REALLY abstract. But, who knows? It could work. You could just do it for the heck of it. You know what you could also try? You guys could video tape the two of you sitting in a room together, listening to the music, and comment on it. It’d be the first commentary where we “see” the commentators but don’t see what it is they’re commenting on.
It DOES need a commentary of some kind though. Liner notes, a booklet, an audio commentary CD, whatever it is…it’s unique enough that some direction and oversight has to be provided by the creators.
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