The Good Life - Album Of The Year

That Saddle Creek Records sure attracts some well read folks. While Bright Eyes enjoys the socio-political depth of Don Delillo, The Good Life ruminates over the vivid prose of John Fante and Charles Bukowski. Good news: neither Bright Eyes nor The Good Life’s music is as complex or indigestible as the books they choose to read. However, like a Bukowski diatribe or nice single malt scotch, Album of the Year grows on you over time. All three delicacies or vices, whichever you prefer, are moody, insightful and brutally honest at the same time. The Good Life, like Bright Eyes, is the summation of one artist. Album of the Year is Tim Kasher’s introspective recollection of lost love and the aftermath that plagues the soul. If you’re a male, “Your No Fool” and “October Leaves” should strike the wrong memory chords. Both melancholy tracks chronicle male mishaps in the minor key, and the consequences that inevitably follow ( i.e. no lovin’ & family betrayal). C’mon, we’ve all been there. While “Notes in His Pockets” and “Lovers Need Lawyers” express the same relational problems, the message is delivered in a poppy The Shins like manner. “Needy” is punctuated by reverberating keyboards that recollect Grandaddy’s most poetically somber moments. The end result you may ask? Album of the Year incorporates many sounds you may already be familiar with, but the songs are overwhelmingly depressing…that is you’re a male and tend to fuck up quite often. Sigh…I need to go buy some flowers. [www.saddle-creek.com]