Rob Crow - Living Well
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CD Details
Artist: Rob CrowEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2007-01-23
Music Label: Temporary Residence
Soundtracks:
- Bam Bam
- I Hate You, Rob Crow (Album Version)
- Taste
- Over Your Heart
- Up
- Chucked
- Burns
- Liefeld
- Leveling
- Ring
- Focus
- If Wade Would Call
- No Sun
- I Hate You, Rob Crow (Single Version)
Music reviews of Living Well
Music Review: Rob at the Crow down.
Rating: 5 Stars
Living Well is the one self entitled solo album that Rob Crow has taken completely seriously, his previous three releases under his own name ( Lesser/Rob Crow Split included), are mostly him goofing off and possibly venting out some unfinished and unpolished ideas to economise space by clearing out his attick with a yard sale. For the typical pop song writer, such a notion would seem like an unwise way to tarnish ones reputation, but then MR. Crow is not your typical pop song writer. For those of you still unfamiliar with Rob Crow, he is without a doubt, the most gifted and prolific melodic hook writer in Indi-Rock history. For the majority of song writers in his field of music, passing the age of 30 is the kiss of death that brings with it, musical menopause that empties all their youthfull exuberance for musical innovation, but for Rob Crow it has only brought refinement and focus to his sence of designing an albulm and constucting songs, where other musitions dry up and blow away, Rob Crow conseptualizes.
As far back as his 1997 Thingy release, Staring contest, this tendancy for refining his endless well of melodic hooks has started to materialize, yet it was not untill The 2003 Pinback EP Offcell that he achieved a fully realized work. Since then he has reached the summit of perfecting a concept album three more times. His second fully perfected work was the full lenth Pinback album Summer In Abaddon 2004. Then he shattered his prowess for conceptualizing with the astounding constructed album with super drummer Zack Hill "The Ladies, They Mean Us" ( read my review of this CD.) Now he has reached the summit again with his latest release Living Well.
The structure to this album consists of two intro tracks "Bam Bam and I Hate You, Rob Crow ( album version)" which if anything, resembles the music of his early bands Thingy, and Heavy Vegetable. They are short in lenth, with disjoined rhythms, blasting of charged energy, and hooks that catch you offgaurd only to embed themselves into your mind for ever. The album them shifts gears with the third track Taste, which could easily fit into Summer In Abaddon, this track not only soothingly places the listener in the more pastorale setting of the Pinback pallet ( which dominates the majority of this album ), at the same time it itroduces a rhythmatic motif that will permeate seven of the next eight songs. Taste only subtly outlines this rhythmatic sway, which swings back and forth like the trunk of an elephant, or a pendulum, it is not untill the powerful fourth track " Over Your Heart" that this swinging pendulum takes over the rhythm of the album. It is noteworthy that the two most poignant tracks "Over Your Heart, track 4, and Focus, track 11" not only use this rhythmatic motif to its fullest effect, but these two super songs also bookend the main body of the album.
The pendulum continues to swing back and forth, side to side, over the next three tracks, Up, Chucked, and Burns, tracks 5,6,&7 respectively. Its here also that a rather psychodelic element starts to seep into sound, though there is nothing outwardly resembling the musical period of the late 60's, I was still reminded of the XTC 60's homage band The Dukes of Stratosphere on more then one occasion. The Pinback sound may make up the majority of this disc, but it is after the hauntingly beautiful 7th track, Burns that a different Rob Crow band shoves Pinback to the side. Liefeld, track 8, may sound as if MR. Crow got side tracked around Damascus Virginia, drove up the crooked road into the heart of Appalachia just long enough to get some New River mountain blood stuck in his viens along with purchasing a banjo, but in truth it is pure Optiganally Yours, and thus the pendulum becomes a ho-down stomp, and for the space of one song, track 9 Leveling, the pendulum is halted. The reason that track 8 does not sound out of place in this Pinback controlled section, is because the main rhythmatic motif, though altered, pursists, the psycodelia pursists, and along with some folksy bluegrass in this track, many of the other tracks have a traditional Celtic element that shades several of the songs, so it all fits as a progression of a collorful journey.
I was thinking that a perfect metephore to use in discribing this album, is to compare it to a film like Brian De Palma's 1976 masterpiece Carrie. Many modern films, like Bennett Miller's Capote for example, desaturate the collor deliborately, whereas Carrie utilizes the most brilliant collors it possibly can to express itself, and is thus truly a collor film. Living Well by Rob Crow is much the same as Carrie, in that it is truly a collor album.
Ring, track 10 brings back the swinging pendulum motif which then hits the second heartfelt high point on track 11 Focus, which is probably the most radio accessible song on the whole album, simply put, it is a fantastic pop song. We are now about to transition back to the final two tracks #13, and 14, No Sun, and I Hate You Rob Crow ( Single Version ). Which like the start of the CD are tracks that are clearly of Thingy and Heavy Vegetable origin. Track 12 " If Wade Would Call" not only pulls us out of Pinback and into Thingy, but it does so by being the second Optiganally Yours song on this disc ( notice that the optigan rears its slushy head to accompany the other instuments in this track), due to a strong sence of design, Rob Crow has already forshadowed the coming of this song back on track 8. Lately this track along with Burns, track 7 have become personal favorites of mine, but this is subject to endless change since the entire album is so strong. As a final note, the second I Hate You, Rob Crow is identicle to the first one, except that it has an extra chorus and music solo to give it the lenth of a traditional pop single.
I can only conclude by saying that Rob Crow is unlike any pop musition I have ever encountered in all my years of listening to music, he has far more in common with classical composers then he does rock musitions in that his gift for music has shown no signs of deterioration. Normally, I feel that all pop musitions should hang it up or be publicly exicuted once they reach their early 30's, but in the case of Rob Crow, I have decided that he can retire at 65 like the rest of us 9 to 5rs, and since he generally releases three albums a year, I will have to clear some shelf space in my own attic for his next 90 releases.
More Living Well free music reviews:
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Description of Living Well
Crow is the front man for Pinback, and this is the story of how he casually made the best record of his career, and why it's called "Living Well". Between breakneck touring and the release of The Ladies' debut (his collaboration with Zach Hill of Hella/Team Sleep), the impossibly prolific Rob had an epiphany: slow down! This coincidentally occurred shortly after the birth of his first child. "Living Well", his third solo record, is intensely personal, documenting his courtship with his wife, their marriage, and the birth of his son. It has the hooks and heart he's famous for, with a refined focus not seen in his other projects.Rob Crow bounces around a lot, from the assorted weirdness of Thingy to his fondness for the Optigan, an obscure type of organ noted primarily for its legendary unreliability. He's also the frontman for the constantly up-and-coming Pinback, and so he knows his way around cerebral indie pop. Living Well, recorded quickly and cheaply between projects (and while raising a new son) captures him at his most unfussy. He sounds rushed, like he doesn't have time for too much tinkering. This is a good thing; Crow's prolific creativity, a positive trait usually, can be a mixed blessing when it pushes him away from the core of his songs. The guy can write tremendously endearing pop, and he profits when concentrating on just that. Take "Up" for instance, a dreamy little two-and-a-half minutes of brainy, soothing song craft, or the split harmonies that roll over the fading chorus of "Chucked." Like Sea and Cake without the jazzy overtones, they're loaded with tender, fleeting wisps of sunny melody. It's all stripped-down and personal, and even the occasional quirk-freak misstep ("Ring") eventually dissolves in a warm intimacy. Thoreau famously said "simplify, simplify," and Crow has apparently listened, much to our collective listening pleasure. --Matthew Cooke
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