Ezra Holbrook and Erin Wallace
Perhaps best known for his work as a founding member of the
Decemberists, Ezra Holbrook is a man of prodigious talent. His most
recent solo album is one of those rare works that covers love, loss and life in
a low-key way, without succumbing to the often maudlin world of
singer-songwriters.
From Greg Barbrick, seattlepi.com:
I was shocked at how deeply this record touched me. Ezra
Holbrook is a singer/songwriter from Portland, Oregon. Now if that is not
enough for you to feel pity for him...(just kidding). Actually, I think if the
industry cared anymore at all about "scenes," Portland has quite a bit going
on. In any case, Holbrook's Save Yourself
is a deeply personal album and one that gets even more striking upon successive
listens.
The title cut opens the disc, and it is a nice piece. But it
was track three, with the oh-so-clever title "Collide-Oscope," that really
caught my attention. I put the CD on as background while I was doing some
household chores, and suddenly just had to stop and make sure of what I was
hearing. This song sounds like a lost track from the Flaming Lips' masterpiece The Soft Bulletin (1999).
Now he had my attention, and the very next tune held me.
"Heart Off Of Your Sleeve" sounds like one of those perfect country-tinged
acoustic songs Neil Young is so famous for. What is so great about this type of
music is that it comes across as seemingly effortless, yet you know the artist
struggled down to his soul to get it right. In this case, the background vocals
are what make it.
Ezra may be a little too clever for his own good, however.
"Architect/Archetype" is just a silly title. But the song itself is fantastic.
Using the familiar acoustic/country-tinged format, Holbrook lays out his case.
It is a gorgeous arrangement. What really struck me was his invocation of the
ghost of Ayn Rand and, in particular, Neil Peart's favorite book, Atlas Shrugged. You tell me if there is
any other interpretation of a line like "Architects suffer the weight of the
world." It is spellbinding though.
From there we come to the reason I wrote this review. The
finest song on the album by far is "Do People Bloom." I was brought
directly back to one of my all time Desert Island Discs: Pink Moon by Nick Drake. It may not be as doomed as that record is,
and the sax adds some hope --but the vibe is there. I have never seen this guy
live, but I imagine the women swoon to this song. And I could understand why.
Finally we come to "The Wrong, Wrong Eyes." Again I am
reminded of Drake, with a little of the softer side of the Lips thrown in.
Very, very nice. Save Yourself is one
of those regional records that makes you wonder if the artist could "make it"
nationally. Who knows, but I have to say that it is damned tasty, in all the
right ways. Worthy of a listen for sure.
More reviews here and here.
- website:
- http://www.johnbunzow.com/