Pete Yorn - Music For The Morning AfterBeing dubbed both a singer songwriter and the new Ryan Adams isn't the best way to kick start your career and this goes some way to explaining why "Music For The Morning After" hasn't exactly set the world on fire over in the States. While journalists have continued to heap praise on the album, it was not until REM guitarist Peter Buck got on the bandwagon and both himself and Pete re-recorded the album track "Strange Condition" for a future release, that people really took notice.
It takes several listens to "Music......." that the subtleties really start to shine and differentials between just another singer songwriter start to show themselves. The opener "Life On A Chain", perhaps the quintessential Pete Yorn track with a driven insistent back beat, highlights those subtle differences that inhabit each and every song on this album. Where it differs from the likes of say Ryan Adams or Elliot Smith is that the rhythm section is an essential part of the jigsaw rather than just an after thought for a series of acoustic folk songs. With Pete taking a hands on approach with every aspect of the recording session right down to playing each and every instrument with Tom Lord-Alge beefing it up in the mixing session it really allows Yorn to focus on the specifics rather than having the conflict of ego's your 4 piece band set up would have.
If "Just Another" and "Strange Condition" sound familiar its because you may just have heard them as the soundtrack for Dawsons Creak or the Farrelly Brothers "Me, Myself and Irene" featuring Jim Carrey. Perhaps inappropriate for teenage chick flick drama or black comedies but an almost universal nature to Pete Yorn's work means that it can almost mold itself to the teenage bedsit depressive or alternatively to communal singing down the highway 69.
Pete Yorn will never be trendy and I've ceased guessing nowadays what the general public considers acceptable. After all when you get the likes of Pop Idol's Will Young and Dido fighting for one side then bands like the Stokes and So Solid Crew fighting for the other side what are you supposed to expect. Pete Yorn sifts through the bulls**t and leaves us with with the true meaning of music.
Alex McCann
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