The Proverbial Difficult Second Album
10/03/2001
(3 out of 5 stars)
"While Jesse Hartman's second is a strong album, the appeal isn't quite as immediate as it was with _Opening Credits_. The 80s/new wave influence is considerably more muted, for starters. While this might appeal to some, it also means the album's less likely to draw retro relics like yours truly, and I'm pretty sure a lot of that album's sales were due to people drawn to the artist by that association.It's also lacking in anything as delightfully malicious as "I'm So Happy You Failed" or "The Reason", or as offbeat as the wonderfully synthy cover of Billy Joel's "It's Still Rock And Roll To Me". While the lyrical themes are darkly ironic as before, they're also more subtle in their delivery, and the lyrics themselves reward/require closer listening to fully appreciate.On a more positive note, the album's got a more cohesive, consistent sound - whereas _Opening Credits_ was a handful of strong singles pasted together with weaker filler, this one's more even. Nothing hits the peaks of his debut, but there's nothing you want to skip either (well, unless you've developed a strong aversion to trendy vocal effects like me). However, when you hit material like "Whole Wide World", which sounds for all the world like something Stephin Merritt might have recorded, the consistency seems more a liability than anything, since you just know Merritt would have sandwiched the track between mutant techno-synth-country and a punk showtune sung in Bulgarian, or something equally eclectic, all the while retaining an appropriately high level of misanthropy and cynicism.So, only 3 out of 5 for this. It rewards repeated listening more than the first album, but as the difficult second album it's position in the grand scheme of things has yet to be decided, and will only become apparent when the *next* album comes out."
Track Listings (12) - Disc #1