How do you describe a band who says its influences are XTC and Richard Davies when it's clear to you that they sound more like Guided by Voices and Yo La Tengo? Here's what I've said to everyone who's asked: "It's what the Magnetic Fields would sound like if they were an Elephant 6 band."
Clearly, this band also would like to be from New Zealand. But they're from Minneapolis. So if you find youself listening to this record and waiting for the rock to begin, you will be disappointed.
If, on the other hand, you’re expecting 44 lo-fi pop songs that rarely clock in at more than two minutes yet transcend their length, Work of Saws' debut record is for you.
This sprawling CD ranges from acoustic instrumentals to show tunes to Pet Sounds harmonies, offering weird pop ditties that recall both Olivia Tremor Control and Quasi.
Songwriter Brock Davis makes poetry out of weird juxtapositions in his tales of death, friendship and silliness. This should be apparent from the album's title and songs like "Reading Material and the Silence of Cement," "Hopeful Missiles," "Smaller Ink on Maps," "Baritone Astronaut Quartet," "I, Son of Math," "Crown State Rhino" and "Buttercup, You're a Canyon."
While the titles and lengths might strike you as throwaways, the songs are actually poignant more often than not. The catchy "Kenny Rogers was Lonely" is preoccupied not with the irony of a has-been but with mall life.
To quote, at random, from, uh, "Losing Vertical Hold:"
Never was I one to sit here alone
The rain will rust my ear to the phone
I think I think you’re making a home out of me.
Sure I’m losing veritcal hold
A sharpened smile will never grow old
I think I think you’re making a home out of me.
There's certainly the burden of consistency on any artist who puts out an album with this many songs on it. There’s also a burden of quality on artists who insist on writing songs that by many standards are no longer than a chorus or a bridge.
The burden is mostly - but not wholly - met. Only a couple songs are throwaways, but others seem to begin promisingly but come to an end after a mere minute. But given the band's claim that they selected 44 songs from hundreds the prolific Davis has written, the style is an art form I'm willing to allow. Plenty of non-album tracks are on their Web site for download!
If only... among Davis's stable of musicians is one singer with a lisp, which is ever so distracting at the quieter moments during the songs on which he sings.
Rating: A- (If you think "Her Majesty" is the best song on Abbey Road, run, don't walk...)
Reviewed by Crispin Havernill