| Charlottesville The Shark Who Pulled A Mussel |
Every morning I ride the subway past the open wound that used to be the World Trade Center; the stench from the ruins lingers high and acrid as an echoing scream. Jetliners overhead make me cringe. I start crying at odd moments for no reason at all. And over and over I've listened to Charlottesville's debut CD, The Shark Who Pulled a Mussel, and found some kind of consolation in Miles Fender and Iris Lapalme's melancholy ruminations on love, life, and loss. Fender first achieved public notice as the leader of British goth band Earth Calling Angela. With his relocation to San Francisco came a stylistic sea change. Charlottesville has been compared by some to bands like Low and Red House Painters. I'm more reminded of the great AM pop of the 60s, with cheery optimism replaced by a wistful Remembrance of Things Past. If Brian Wilson had picked up an acoustic guitar and recorded "Endless Autumn," it might have sounded something like this: at their best, Charlottesville's moody harmonies and penetrating lyrics wouldn't have been out of place on Simon & Garfunkel's "Wednesday Morning 3 a.m." or "The Sounds of Silence." This could all become unlistenably dreary, Music to Slit Your Wrists To, were it not for Fender's ear for tuneful hooks. "Chicken Coop for the Soul," the CD's opener, has a tasty synthesizer riff which echoes vintage Duran Duran, supported by a warm harmonica. It's enough to make you tap your feet as Fender tells his lover "I'm going to open up this cage and get myself outside of you." Every breakup should sound this good. Charlottesville's music develops at a leisurely pace, and tends to be more minimalist than flashy. Softly voiced piano chords and a high-hat rhythm form the underpinning of "Embarcedaro." As a muffled bass drum kicks in, Fender's voice rises with a wispy song of unrequited love. The piano chords rise with him as he gives us her final bit of advice ... "Next time don't take it further than the end" ... and then fade back into silence, the soundtrack to an unproduced film about a love that never was. Being a good singer-songwriter demands skill in several disciplines... singing, performing, composing, and lyric writing. "Lost All This Time," shows off Miles Fender's skills in all of the above. In three verses he takes us from that rush of love with "a thousand dreams inside my self/all of them of you and no one else," into, "I never thought I'd see you lose your smile/It's not a state of mind it's just denial" into "And here's nothing I never said before/You're not my savior you never were" into "A thousand thoughts inside my mind/every single one is real unkind/and you can come here any time you want/just shut the door on your way out." The wind has shifted as I'm writing this. The air stinks faintly of powdered concrete and burning plastic. Outside the leaves have started to turn; this morning it was very cold. As I start playing Charlottesville again I realize it's going to be a long time until spring. TRACKS: Charlottesville are Miles Fender and Iris Lapalme Charlottesville Website Charlottesville MP3 Site |