I know my obsession with this band can be overbearing at times. Like me comparing them to a woman that you wish to spend the rest of your life with. However, given my obsessions with other things: women, beer, sports, and trivia mostly, I find that this may be my most healthy obsession. So here's a review of the DVD "All I Ever Wanted", a concert video filmed at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.
Let's start by exaggerating: this was the most overblown rock concert ever. The Calder Quartet , bassist Noah Harmon, and violinist Anna Bulbrook give the concert an operatic or classical feel. Mikel Jollett makes it feel like a lonely lounge act. Steven Chen's guitar and Daren Taylor's drums make it a rock band. Together, who knows where the act falls? I could tell you that they are a rock band, but so much of it is undefinable. Sure, they may have the instruments, but they don't exactly hit the songs as hard as other indie acts. It's not a matter of passion, but rather just the feel of the songs loaded with melancholy. Jollett despite hundreds of shows, still sees himself as a writer, and perhaps he is right (He confesses that he can't read music, but admittedly has an ear for it).
The concert both contains a DVD and CD for the concert. The DVD is far more disconnected, providing back-story for both the band and the preparations for the concert. Being a one-album (with only ten songs) band putting together a seventy minute show with an intermission requires some additions. Eight of the self-titled debut album's tracks feature, but they fill out the set with other bonus tracks and covers. Guest musicians pay homage to the band's Los Angeles roots, and give a playful feel to a concert that could have been overly dramatic given the classical feel of the concert hall.
The opening allows the Calder Quartet to show their talents, which maybe someone who sees them doing shows with a rock band would automatically and wrongly assume were lesser. The band's entry leads to a transition into "Wishing Well", arguably the saddest song off of the album. Following a song about a lost woman with a song about a relationship past it's expiration date might bring the concert down, but it's expected and the beat of "This Losing" is anything but sad. This might be how I feel specifically about this show: epically depressed but dancing inside. The next song continues the sentiment almost driving home the loneliness of a man not alone, but together with someone who cared for him little.
The next song, "The Book of Love" is my favorite cover on the new album. Personally, the perfection of Peter Gabriel's cover of this song by the Magnetic Fields is hard to beat. The song's use in the finale of the original Scrubs was so perfect that it almost brought me to tears. This cover sounds much more like the original, but unlike the Magnetic Fields cynical love songs seems deeper because of Mikel's story about singing it to his grandmother. It's simply a beautiful song, when the person singing it isn't jaded about love. I would highly recommend it on my mix-tape for the hopeless romantic (soon to come, but not too far off of my breakup mix-tape). The tone of the show changes deeply on this song, as the next song "Something New" drives home "the hopeless romantic who wants to dance" feel this band has perfected.
"Duet" is one of the other new songs that the band had worked into the tour, but not the album. "Duet" is a loose term in this case, as Anna's voice rarely dominates Mikel's. Again, this might just be an implied emotion as it is written from Mikel's perspective. The whole song is something I've always thought wasn't sung about enough. Lots have songs have been written about hating a lost love, or still loving them. But why not write about a lost love that just is lost. The whole song is a man saying that losing a woman was the best thing that ever happened, even if he sees her from afar and wishes that weren't the case. Painting love in black and white is never the best way to project what actually happens in most cases.
The next two songs are out of place in a concert hall. Each is a lounge song in essence. The first "Gasoline" is teeming with jealousy, the second "Happiness is Overrated" with the regret of a missed chance. The concert which was before dominated by melancholy, now has become playful, almost exuberant despite the continued theme of failed relationships. This sets up well for the song after the intermission, when the band walks in with an entire high school marching band. The choice of having a marching band behind the short and sweet "Does This Mean You Are Moving On?" is excellent, both logistically and aesthetically. This is the album's most fun song despite the depressing background, it demands the greatest amount of exuberance from the band, and having the whole marching band performing adds to the whimsy of the songs situation. Personally, I hate the next song "Rock and Roll Radio", but I understand its choice for these same reasons.
show's beginning, but I would say that the songs aesthetically improve from here on out as well.
Next is the always creepy "Goodbye Horses", if you don't know why, then you probably never watched "Silence of the Lambs". Luckily, for those of you who can't listen to then song without imagining transvestite serial killers making lady suits or Jason Mewes tucking his penis between his legs, the song itself isn't particularly bothersome here. It leads into "All I Ever Wanted", as much a love song as any this band has ever sang. The song again isn't perfect, but when is love? The implications of telling a lover that he/she's all you ever wanted and that not being enough are perhaps the scariest to anyone in a relationship. The song reeks of desperation, but instead of the others before it ends with the relationship together instead of irreparable. "Innocence", destroys all that this accomplishes, by bringing the wrecked man back to the forefront, so that we can see how fleeting the happiness is between the sorrows.
To end the show, they bring out some young LA girls to sing "Missy" with Mikel and then everyone joins them to finish the show. Missy is the cute ending that shows that this band isn't all doom and gloom. The roar of the crowd as the girls join in is as perfect as a live album can get. I've seen them live before and really the show doesn't match the sadness of the lyrics. The DVD amplifies this by zooming in on the strings and Mikel's expression. Live, it seems much more detached, and this song embodies more of the spirit of the band.
Two thoughts always come up, when I listen to this band. I always laugh when the album is referred to as misogynistic. Of course, it is misogynistic, it's a breakup album. Why would someone write something positive about a woman who cheated on him and then rubbed it in his face (as the songs imply)? It in no way implies that women are worse than men, but in this particular case the women tend to be worse. Although, "Innocence", "Something New", and "Does this Mean You're Moving On?" all imply that the man is just as much at fault or worse in the case of "Something New".
Lastly, this album has been my companion over the past few weeks; certainly outplaying the Band of Horses, Arcade Fire, and Murder by Death albums which have dominated my summer hours. The reasoning is simply due to a need for melancholic aural relief. The lyrics themselves are incredibly downbeat, depressing and hopeless in many ways. However, the delivery both Mikel's voice and the instrumental work of Anna, Noah, Steven, and Daren (plus the Calder Quartet and the many guest musicians) makes this album and the band sufficiently fulfilling as if they understand the emptiness that exists inside and fill it with beauty that tears the soul as well as uplifts. It's a mixed bag of emotions for me, and for a man who rarely expresses his emotions, verbally or physically, it exists as a catharsis that perhaps is only matched by sports in my life. Really, that's extreme value for a DVD/CD you bought yourself for Christmas.
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