FEATURED REVIEW...................................................17 JANUARY 2005
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Artist:
BUDDY MILLER |
God, save us from your singer/songwriters.
I picked up Buddy Miller's latest with trepidation: Universal United House of Prayer? Had he gone 80s Dylan on us? Was this his Slow Train Coming? His Saved? Sure, we all know that Mr. Miller has a personal relationship with the Almighty, but was he now angling for our souls as well? And what kind of effect would this have on his music?
The liner notes to the Miller's 2001 disc Buddy and Julie Miller thank "the Maker of all that is good, the Inventor of music and love and laughing, the One who sticks closer than a brother, 'our hearts are restless till they rest in thee.'" Maudlin, mawkish cheeze. "Faith" indubitably has a caustic effect on aesthetic sensibilities. But hey, thump your bible in the liner notes all you want, as long as you're giving the world "Dirty Water" and "Rock Salt and Nails," we'll ignore the credits.
To my delight, Universal United House of Prayer opens with the trademark sound of Miller's crunchy guitar. Six seconds in my face fell: a gratuituous back-up singer launches into a warble. The lead track--"Worry Too Much"-- is probably the album's strongest. It is, nevertheless, damned by poor production choices.
I am aware that back-up singers are a gospel convention. Convention, however, is not justification, particularly when the the slick chorus of "oohs" (or should I say "slick chorus of 'ooze'"?) would sound more at home in cheezy 80s pop than on some old Okeh 78. The absurd back-up singing continues through the next two tracks--"There's a Higher Power" and "Shelter Me."
Writing in No Depression, Geoffrey Himes calls the fourth track on Miller's new album--"With God on Our Side"--"[t]he most powerful piece of music I heard in 2004." With all due respect, Mr. Himes, you must be given to hyperbole. It is a solid cover, I will grant, and the first track on the album not needlessly corrupted by a backing chorus, but clocking in at over 9 minutes, "indulgent" is the descriptor that most readily comes to mind. (And when the best "new" protest music is a 40-year-old Dylan tune warmed over, well, don't get me started...)
Miller follows his Dylan moment with "Wide River to Cross." Decent, on the whole, but I stumble over another needless "ooh-ooh-ooh." On hearing the break in "Fire and Water," I'm convinced that Mr. Miller has not only covered Dylan's protest music, but his 80s arena-rock drum sound as well.
Track 7--"Don't Wait"--is the album in microcasm: a project brimming with potential derailed by production decisions. The song starts out well--really well: a murky guitar over the irregular clackity-clack of what could be spoons, a little bit of banjo. Then, the cheezy break, studio-slick "heavy" guitars, a chorus of back-up singers wailing "don't wait." Christ. To add insult to injury, a gospel preacher gets thrown into the mix. The devil, as they say, is in the details.
The album's remaining four tracks are more of the same. Promising starts, silly back-up singers, everything just a bit too clean (like the rattlesnake percussion effects that open "Is That You?") It's not me.
In summation: A hallelujah chorus and several sermons can't save this album's soul. In fairness, the album (mostly) avoids being preachy. Nevertheless, for cheezy production and a total disregard for Cheezeball Commandment 3.a (see the Cheezeball Manifesto), we're going to sling 3 1/2 cheezeballs its way.
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A NOTE ON THE RATING SYSTEM:
5 CHEEZEBALLS = UNLISTENABLE SCHLOCK
3 CHEEZEBALLS = A DIFFICULT SLOG
1 CHEEZEBALL = THE ODD FORGIVABLE MISSTEP
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