Search - Herman Jolly :: Thanasphere

Windless Sucked Me In

Owen Shiflett | LA, CA | 01/11/2004

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Herman Jolly. What a great name for a singer/songwriter pop-folk revolutionist. Thanaspere, what a great name for a disaterous disappointment.
Everything about this album is lame. The cover art sucks, the liner notes tell us nothing, the hype is even blisteringly dull. Why even rate it with one star you ask? "Windless" is the single best song to come out of the indie folk scene since Bright Eyes first burst from his Nebraska roots or Joseph Arthur's undaunting Big City Secrets. Even the more mainstream David Gray and John Mayer can't quite grasp the honest brilliance of Jolly's flirtatious single.
If you can find a version of "Windless" in mp3, I can't reccomend it higher. (Pitchfork used to have a link) His minimalist ballad seems to be just wrought with the kind of angst and torturous songwriting that a seasoned poet couldn't even create. At the same time, however, there's an energy and optimism that could only compare to the college student playing his own material at an open mic for the first time. Wonderful song that you can't help turn the volume up to.
Now the album. Aweful. Jolly ditches his infectious song writing and funky hand-clapping grad school wonderment for drudging sorrows and drugged-up clunkers. The rest of the songs rely too heavily on Jolly's less-than par vocals to save their melodies. He isn't playing to his strengths. Let the songs sing themselves. The stories within would carry tune. He forgets this on every track surrounding "windless."
I've not experience Mad Cowboy Disease, but I don't know how it could be as disappointing as this one."