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Dec 04, 2013 Howe Gelb By Dan Lucas

Imagine describing the music of Leonard Cohen to a friend who has never heard of the Canadian troubadour. Now imagine that friend is a musician who then decides to record an album that sounds like their idea of Leonard Cohen, based on your description. This is the sound of Howe Gelb‘s new album: David Byrne did this with Joy Division and the result was Talking Heads 77; The Coincidentalist is hardly as successful.

Gelb’s voice here is smooth and whisky-soaked to the point of parody. “It used to be much cheaper/To find a love and keep her,” he intones over a smooth lounge jazz piano and drums on the album’s opening track, and the whiff of forced nostalgia never dissipates. He switches smoothly between that smoked barroom sound and his familiar alt-country and Americana leanings. “Running Behind” is another throwback that best showcases the latter genre, although with its light country guitar line it’s strongly reminiscent of The Eagles’ “Lyin’ Eyes.”

Oddly this makes for a pleasant, if uninspiring, listen. Gelb sounds fully committed to the songs, injecting them with warmth and conveying a genuine sense of enjoyment. There’s nothing wrong with retromania in small doses, and when it’s done with this much conviction then it becomes infectious enough to make an enjoyable album. (www.howegelb.com)

Author rating: 6/10