Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Nightcrawler

Pete Yorn
Nightcrawler
2006, Red Ink/Columbia


8.5


From the moment Pete Yorn opened his recent Stone Pony show in Asbury Park, NJ on the You & Me Acoustic Tour, I knew that Nightcrawler was going to be a smash, a return to everything I loved about "musicforthemorningafter". Just like that show at the Stone Pony, the album opens with the darkness of "Vampyre", a slow then heavy "intro" style song. Its one of the darker songs you will ever hear from PY, maybe the darkest, but there is something just so gripping about this song, and just something so dirty about the recording quality. Its a fantastic, almost incomplete song, that takes you right into the outstanding first single "For Us".

For Us holds a very simple progression, but the song takes you for a vocal journey unlike most of the previous vocal range offerings Pete has dished out. There is almost a point where I feel like he has become more of a crooner...."I watch you for a bit...". Its a perfect rock song, and a great hook makes it single ready.

There are a few slips on the album. In 2002 PY released a song for the Spiderman Soundtrack called "Undercover" which appears on this album as the same exact recording as it was previously released. Its a great song, but really stands out as a song that was not part of the same recording session. "Splendid Isolation" is a Warren Zevon cover which was also recorded and released in 2002. Its a great song, and I have to say that it fits perfectly on the album. Though even with out reading the liner notes, any true PY fan should at least be able to tell that those arent typical lyrics for Pete to write...cause obiviously he didnt. "Bandstand In The Sky" was written by Pete in 1997 and released as an entirely different version....a much better version....on the album Live From New Jersey. Still a great song. I have learned to enjoy the studio recording, though I will admit that it took about 1000 listens.

There are too many stand out songs to mention. Some songs that didnt strike me as much at first, and have now become my favorites. One of the best, and most unusual PY songs ever has to be "Georgie Boy". It appears that Pete was in fact paying attention to music in the 80's when he was growing up. Both "Georgie Boy" and "How Do You Go On?" have almost a Pete Yorn meets 80's dance remix. "Georgie Boy" is a great track.

One claim that I can make on the album is that it holds the song which will end up being my Favorite Song of 2006. Ladies and gentleman..."The Man". Its a classic. The lyrics are a perfect slowdance under the moonlight, laced with the sweet voice of Natalie Maines (who knew!). The song is such a sweet acoustic rock song. The perfect example of when a song just works.

In addition to the 14 track album, there are numerous b-sides, and there is the Westerns EP, which was released and deleted before the album dropped. The b-sides are all good, but clearly b-sides. Some of the songs on Westerns are pretty amazing and probably could have been made into much larger songs and placed on Nightcrawler instead of the 3 previously recorded songs.

Either way, there is pleanty of Pete to go around as usual.

Music for the morning after the day i forgot nightcrawler. What does the future hold?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What do you mean who knew about Natalie Maines? Hello!

And I concur. That song does work.

The Dave said...

I mean, who knew Natalie Maines would ever appear on a PY album. It just seems impossible...but Its great.