Search - His Name Is Alive :: Last Night

Warn needs to return to his control freak ways

Christopher Culver | 02/16/2003

(2 out of 5 stars)

"LAST NIGHT, the latest album by His Name Is Alive, the project of Livonia, MI musician Warn Defever, continues in the R&B style of early efforts, while mixing in a lot of 70's jazz influences. Hastily recorded over a couple of weeks in the summer of 2001, it features a much freer sound than previous HNIA albums.I found the album quite disappointing. While some feel that Defever's foray into an R&B-inflected sound is alienating, I enjoyed the change of pace on 2000's WHEN THE STARS REFUSE TO SHINE and 2001's SOMEDAY MY BLUES WILL COVER THE EARTH. The vocals by Lovetta Pippen are skillfully done, with a sultry tone that had never been heard before in HNIA's music. But for me, LAST NIGHT fails not because of its style, but simply because there is little sign of creative control by Warn. While earlier HNIA albums were written entirely by Defever, with him holding a high degree of control over the performances of his musicians, on this album Warn lets his band cut loose and do whatever they want. As a result, I feel like I'm listening to something very low in quality, insteading of the crazy genius that was a hallmark of earlier HNIA efforts. Unsurprisingly, the best songs are those in which the music is provided by mostly just Warn, such as "Maybe" and "Train". Furthermore, the artwork of the album, by acclaimed British design firm v23, is lackluster and predictable. In order to make the album congruent with other recent 4AD releases, v23 chose to package it in a digipack with dull and occasionally obnoxious artwork. With such poor sound and artwork, I cannot help but feel that LAST NIGHT is a failure of an album that should be avoided by all except collectors of His Name Is Alive's releases."