What
makes a good solo album?
Daniel
Rossen’s masterful Silent Hour / Golden
Mile EP comprises five really good tracks, which tie together effortlessly,
try on different sonic pallets, and leave you wanting even more great music of
the Grizzly Bear persuasion.
I
could stop the review there, but since I’ve already charged 10 dollars to all
of your credit cards for merely clicking on this link[i], I
should probably put some effort into this review.
I’m
serious though; this EP is five for five on the great songs front and is worth everyone
reading this blog’s time. There are bigger questions affront, though. Such as:
how do you succeed in solo efforts if your band, in this case Grizzly Bear, has
already faced a reasonable amount of success?
Firstly,
you need good songs. “Up On High” starts the record with confidence. It sounds
like Grizzly Bear and Rossen’s other band, Department of Eagles, but it isn’t a
part of those projects.
Rossen
is more singular hear, playing his warm acoustic guitar with tasteful and
acoustic string arrangements. “Silent Song” is Rossen’s most exuberant vocal
performance on record, so much so I can hear him smirking a bit through his
words. “Return To Form” contains a great acoustic fingerpicking line that
eventually explodes into an electric orchestra of riffs, acting as the most
memorable moment on the EP. “Saint Nothing” is the slow track here, and Rossen
plays the piano beautifully, dancing with his rustic vocals that would fit
perfectly in a jazz lounge 70 years ago. The soft string and brass
instrumentation aids the ambiance as well. “Golden Mile” is catchy and contains
the title of the EP, acting as an obvious choice for a single alongside “Silent
Song.” The tasteful, cosmopolitan use of lap steel also propels the song
forward, never slowing down, even as it hits the thick riff-led breakdown. “Golden
Mile” forms into a wonderful pop song. The EP as a whole is never cheesy,
over-indulgent, or boring. It finds that sweet spot.
Is that the key? Finding a sweet spot? What does
that mean? It is a sports cliché, sex cliché, music cliché, but like all clichés,
it holds a semblance of truth if you think about it long enough. What is the
sweet spot in this case, in music, especially for Rossen? Well, the sweet spot
is sounding like his older stuff (in his bands) but still sounding new. If
Daniel Rossen went out and accumulated the members of STOMP[ii] and
made an all percussion album featuring him yelping in his best rendition of
David Byrne, while also having a bunch of recorded penguin farts buzzing in the
background, most of us would think he departed too far from what he’s good at—mixing
jazz chords and indie pop music. Like the great pop auteurs of years past,
namely John Lennon and George Harrison, who Rossen reminds me of, he finds new
ways of expressing his style of music as opposed to completely throwing out
penguin farts. Even Radiohead, who are famous for changing their sound time and
time again, still have that Radiohead soul that makes a good Radiohead song,
regardless if it is krautrock or brit pop[iii].
There is no math for the sweet spot, but you know it
when you hear it. It isn’t a recipe for a cake, where if you add too little
baking powder the cake is flat. Rather, the sweet spot is like cooking food,
instead of baking, like art and not science. In making good chili, there is a
range of how much chili powder you should add, depending on the occasion. If
your dad is coming, and he always gets the runs when there is too much spice,
add less chili powder or else you’re going to have to wear deep sea diver’s
equipment to clean the bathroom. If your best friend is coming, and he loves
spice and will complain if you don’t add enough, add more chili powder or you’ll
hear it all night.
My final verdict on Silent Hour / Golden Mile is that Daniel Rossen added the perfect
amount of chili powder to please everyone, and disappoint none.
Strong 8 / Lite 9
[i] This is not
true. Don’t sue me or Your Personal
Opinion Is Wrong. Please. For God’s sake please.
[ii] Are they even
still around?
[iii] Musical genre terms
are funny out of context. Picture this: You ask your mom how she is and she
replies “Chillwave.” Half of you reading this don’t even know what chillwave
is. Hell, I don’t know what chillwave is. It’d be even weirder if your mom
said, “Post-dubstep.”
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