Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Griffin House - Homecoming

I fell in love with Griffin House (in a purely heterosexual way, of course) a couple of years ago. His major label debut album (Lost & Found) had just been released through Nettwerk. There was a sticker on the front - a short quote from a review of the album. The quote said something to the effect of, "The first lines of Griffin House's hushed debut sound like Bono quietly singing Johnny Cash." So, I thought to myself, "Hey, I like Bono. I like Johnny Cash. Yeah...I think I'll like this guy." As it turned out, he was coming to town to do a show in a couple of weeks, so I bought the album without listening to it.
And I loved it. I could definitely hear the Bono in his voice. He had such rich vocals, and, when he stretched his voice to "scream", it was still rich, but a little raspy, like you could tell he was only doing so out of necessity. I was also a huge fan of his songwriting. Between the two, I was telling everyone about this guy, the next great singer/songwriter, with great songwriting skills and a voice that'll knock you out. Not many people listened, which was sad. I even heard taunts of "Hey...Are you sure that isn't Ryan Adams?" upon playing his album for people. They'll learn...they'll all learn.
So just imagine how excited I was for new music from him. I downloaded it as soon as it was posted...And spent the next week trying to convince myself that it was good.
Once again, I had fallen into the LaMontagne trap of setting up expectations of what an album (or artist) should sound like. Outside of maybe 4-5 songs, there's not much on this album that sounds like his last one.
But that's good.
After about 5 listens, I started to get into the album a little more. After 7, I couldn't stop listening to it. Every song on here is great. Some sound a little out of place at first ("Czech Republic" was the main culprit), but, the more you listen to it, the more you really start to look forward to every song.
Griffin does a little bit of everything on this album. Epic 80s pop ("Live to Be Free"), rockabilly ("'Cause I Miss You"), ode to Cash train songs, ("Downtown Line"), upbeat love/breakup songs ("The Guy That Says Goodbye to You is Out of His Mind"), and a perfect closer ("Go Out on My Own").
That's not to say that the album sounds schizophrenic. Not once have I thought, "Man, I wish he would stick to one style," while listening to this album. It all seems to fit together as a whole, no matter how different some of the songs may be.
And it always good to see someone stretch themselves as an artist, especially this early on in their career. We should expect nothing less than excellence from Griffin in the future...And I know he'll produce.
One final thought. Last night Sharon and I were both in the living room. I was playing Madden while Sharon was studying for a test. I had this album playing in the background. During the first song, she turned to me and asked if this was Griffin House. I said yes. When "Czech Republic" came on a couple of tracks later, she stopped, looked at me, and we had this exchange:

Sharon: Who is this?
Me: Still Griffin House.
Sharon: Really?
Me: Yep.
Sharon: I like it. I just didn't think that he could do something this different.

Always stretching himself. Yeah...that's what I'm looking for in an artist.

Rating: 8.2/10

Essential Tracks: "Downtown Line", "Lead Me On", "Only if You Need Me", "Go Out on My Own"
Favorite Tracks: "Burning Up the Night", "The Guy That Says Goodbye to You is Out of His Mind"

(Afternote: This album is currently not available in stores, but you can purchase a copy of it through Griffin's website, www.griffinhousemusic.com, or you can download it from that same site or through iTunes.)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I listened to both Lost & Found and Homecoming and I definitely liked the majority of both albums. Some of his stuff seems distinctly Damien Rice-ish to me. Or probably better said, some of Damien Rice's stuff sounds distinctly Griffin House-ish. So there you go.

Anonymous said...

Damien Rice is "Griffin House-ish?!?!?" I can't sit idly by with outrageous statements like this abounding. Griffin House is a poor man's singer/songwriter. Like Eagle Eye Cherry poor man. He has a few good songs, but he's no Damien Rice. Not even close.

And I am still not Asian.

Anonymous said...

Does Damien Rice have some vast store of superior songs hidden away somewhere that I'm unaware of? As far as I know, he's ridden a single album + 5 or 6 songs to FOUR years worth of b-side, live and soundtrack releases.

Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy "O" (at least I did until "Closer" ruined it for me), but I guess I didn't realize that in today's music world, one good album makes you the standard by which all others are measured. I'll be sure to note that for future posts.

As for Eagle Eye Cherry (Creepy picture), I can happily say that I lack the ability to comment on his catalog. Seems like strange parallel to draw but maybe that's just me.

I am also not asian.

Anonymous said...

Bucky Fifty apologizes for two things:

1. For forgetting to talk in the third person in the last post.

2. For mentioning Eagle Eye Cherry when Pete Yorn was the more obvious coorelation.

Buck Fifty regrets this grave error.

Buck Fifty did enjoy the song "Tell Me a Lie," but could never get through a full listening of that album. It was too typical. Maybe this next one will prove different.