PARSONSFIELD
afterparty
Signature Sounds 2067
* * ½
How do you like your old-time (ish) music, straight up or
mashed? Languid and melancholic, or caffeinated and raucous? Controlled or
ragged? I generally get bored with stuff that hews too straight to tradition.
In that spirit, Parsonsfield (formerly Pure Old Shine) ought to be just my shot
of Old Red Eye. And so they are, but just one shot, not the whole jug. There is
much to be admired about this young band, not the least of which is that
everyone in it has a good voice and they know how to harmonize. They also sport
a fine balance of whimsical songs (Mississippi John Hurt's "Let the Mermaids Flirt with Me"), funky (a cover of Bert Jansch's "Strollin'
Down the Highway"), 50's style doowop rock ("Anita, Your
Lovin'"), and some old-time mountain pathos ("Hang Me" and
"Lay Some Flowers on My Grave.") Not only do these five lads sing
well, they're also fine musicians on everything from the usual stringed
instruments to things such as glockenspiel, trumpet, and musical saw.
So why a middling rating? Frankly, these guys exhaust me. afterparty is an EP and its seven tracks
are pretty close to my limit. The reason lies in the execution, not the effort.
These tracks involve the kind of involvement one puts into training a kitten–both the fun parts and the moments when you just want things to calm down. That
is to say, Parsonsfield tends to arrange material that teeters on the brink of
chaos. Usually they pull back just in the nick of time, but sometimes they
don't. I get the idea that they wanted to make a spirited album evocative of
evenings when the real party begins when the official one ends. I also get it
that they wanted to keep the mood light and the music unrestrained. Oddly,
though, all this full-tilt energy has the net effect of making seven really different
songs feel the same. There's a reason
why more experienced lineups spend a lot of time working on the pacing of their
set lists. afterparty still makes it
onto my personal playlist, but I like it a whole lot better when it's loaded on
my iPod with other albums and the mode set to shuffle. Rob
Weir
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