Before we go any further, Richard Formby is a brilliant musician. In the album Alone With Everyone, he plays: the electric guitar, organ, lapsteel, harmonica, turkish lute, bazouki, spanish guitar, pipe organ, piano, autoharp, tubular, bells, bass, and harmonium. That in itself is not impressive (O.K., it is a little). What's impressive is that this album has some of the most beautiful, impressive composition and instrumentation I have ever heard on a "pop" disk.
That does not mean this is a good album what so ever. Dakota Suit sounds like a fake Nirvana half of the time, and all of the time when singing is involved. Chris Hooson just cannot sing. He can't pronounce words, either, because I cannot understand half of what this guy says. I sounds sad and deep, but the world may never know.
The general rule of thumb for this album is: if the song does not start with some impressive instrumental music, it will end in some; there will be a solo of some kind in the song; Hooson can't sing; Hooson can't sing; Formby is awesome; Hooson can't sing. Assume, when I talk about the songs, that they all sound sad unless otherwise stated and they all sound like mush when Hooson is singing. I don't care about the lyrics because I can't understand most of them. I only care about the beautiful moments of music.
The Things We Carry opens the album up on a low note. It's a home demo with none of the impressive stuff, just melancholy droning. The fact that it is a home demo really shows, and it should not be on the album.
Mood Indigo shows the first signs that something special is lurking behind the intellectual mush. Some subtle slide guitar gives the song a George Harrison feel, while the rest of the backing on the song sounds very well done. Once again, the singing is angsty, bad, and ruins the music.
After Mood Indigo, to my surprise, songs start to pop up that really sound special (I picked this randomly out of an indie bucket. There tends to be nothing close to special in the cheap indie bucket. EVER). Episodes is a gorgeous little piano solo with a breathtaking duality between the high treble and the low bass clefs. Divided starts out with a clarinet introduction that sounds almost classical in nature (then Hooson sings and ruins it). The song then finishes with what, by my ear, is a viola/cello duet. The very next song, Just Like Jesus (I know), has off-beat electric guitars with some swing and ends with a saxophone solo the belongs in a music hall more than it does on this album!
The variety on this album in one sense is terrible. All of the songs run together and feel very dull. In another sense, though, the instrumentation varies so greatly that I am forced to bring comparisons to (don't shoot me) The Beatles (please don't shoot me) on Srg. Pepper (I'm so sorry).
There is a little gold nugget on most every song, begging for you to find it through the haze of sorrow and hum-drum. My suggestion is to bite the bullet and look for the nugget. It is worth it in the end. And because this album may be hard to find and even harder to listen to, I'll give you the songs worth listening to on Youtube (if they're there).
1. Episode
2. Divided
3. Somewhere
4. Just Like Jesus
5. Wintersong
6. News From Nowhere
With only six decent songs, let's see what this album gets for a rating:
Originality: 4
Artistic Quality: 5
Listenability: 2
Overall: 11
