:: Track Listing

1. Catherine Dupree
2. Just To Know What You've Been Dreaming
3. Vultures Await
4. Just Some Silence
5. Sleep A While
6. As Victims Would
7. Closing Down My House
8. On, Caledonia
9. Your Bulldozer
10. A Thousand Other Parts
11. Fly, My Sweet Dove
12. Nothin' But Godzilla

:: Record Review

Will Johnson

Vultures Await
(Misra; 2004)

Rating: 71%


Though he certainly hadn't been hibernating for the six years between releasing Centro-matic's great Redo the Stacks (1997) and last year's Love You Just the Same, I'd only heard, and was disappointed by, small pieces of Will Johnson's immense body of work. As such, I'd never really bothered to look into his endless other projects---including a solo record previous to the one I'm currently reviewing (2002's enjoyable Murder of Tides), and a handful of records with South San Gabriel.

Prolific, indeed, but I'd always been weary of songwriters that'd rather release two albums instead of being more selective and releasing one. Some songwriters prove themselves capable of the task of producing enough consistent material to keep their fans want to keep coming back, but it's rare. Mostly because it's such a big risk (if simply because the more you release, the more likely you are to water down your talent and/or rub your fans the wrong way---either by never changing their sound or changing it to the point of removing all appeal), but if you pull it off---like Robert Pollard, John Darnielle, Frog Eyes' Carey Mercer and Devendra Banhart---the effect of so many releases can quickly gain you a cult following. After all, if I find three records that I really enjoy by any artist, I'll keep constant tabs on them, even if those records came out in a two month radius.

Johnson's latest release is Vultures Await, though all that seems to be separating it from Centro-matic's records are a change in surrounding personnel and a minimized use of them. Many segments of Vultures are performed solely by Johnson, with either just an acoustic guitar or piano accompanying him, much like Jason Molina's toned down Pyramid Electric Co. earlier this year. But, unlike Molina's record, Johnson decides to also bring in extra musicians; sometimes to add atmospheric garnishes, and in a few cases, a full band arrangement that is all the more startling given its desolate context.

"Catherine Dupree," a repetitive five minute solo piano track that instantly makes the Pyramid comparison clear, opens the record but thankfully doesn't constitute all that Johnson has to offer on Vultures. Like Springsteen's Nebraska, a seminal example of an artist paring down his sound with remarkable results, "Dupree" focuses on tribulations of their contemporary culture. In Springsteen's case, it was the everyday workers and politics of personal defeat, while Johnson focuses instead on the abnormal: a female university student that torches a University. Despite the vivid and compelling lyrical content, the track goes on far too long and gives the record a b-side collection feel far too early in the game. It eventually crawls out of such a rut, but, unfortunately, not right away.

While Springsteen had spent the entirety of Nebraska fleshing out his incredible play on the real state of America, Johnson instantly branches off with the record's second track, "Just To Know What You've Been Dreaming." An extremely Wilco-esque melody backs a more fleshed out arrangement, and the production reeks of solo Lennon records---specifically the distinct piano and percussion sound captured on Imagine and Plastic Ono Band. The same superficial description could be used for the album's title track (except the drum track is performed by a cheap drum machine), though its melody actually exists and is devoid of the kind of comparatively bland lyrics that make "Dreaming" one of Johnson's least affecting songs to date.

"Just Some Silence" brings the record back to basics, its simple three chord chorus a highlight; and, much like "Sleep A While's" similar lyricless "climax" (it's of note that the first few bars of its instrumental refrain are nabbed directly from "Freebird"), it continues to uncannily recall Jason Molina's more recent work (think 2002's Didn't It Rain onward). "As Victims Would," like "Dupree," coasts far too long without actually going anywhere to make its few moments worthwhile.

The heavy Crooked Fingers feel of "Closing Down My House" (Johnson and Bachman have always shared a vaguely similar whiskey-burned timbre, but this track's melody smacks of 2003's excellent Red Devil Dawn) offers a quick reprieve from "Victim's" monotony with one of the record's best vocal performances (the double tracked vocals, like on the title track and previous Centro-matic tracks like "Strahan Has Corralled the Freaks," adding a lot of its appeal). And while it may be chased by a unremarkable instrumental ("On, Caledonia"), "Your Bulldozer," another scaled down cut, quickly picks up on its momentum. It gets off to a slow start, but its beautiful melody, something that was sorely missing from "Dupree," more than makes up for its repetition.

Johnson wisely chooses to end Vultures with three of its best. "A Thousand Other Parts" is a beautiful M. Ward/Jim James style ballad, and finally steps away from the record's steady insistence on steadily repeating chords. Johnson's guitar playing remains secondary to his startling voice, of course, but at least adds its own personality to the light, but oddly romantic, backing track. "Fly, My Sweet Dove" is also the best of the record's fully arranged cuts, and isn't nearly as saccharine as the title might suggest. It's one of the album's few tracks to match the stark immediacy of previous songs like Love's "All The Lightning Rods" or Stacks' "Cannot Compete," and is pretty much alone in not sticking around for a minute or so too long---even despite being the second longest track on the album. "Nothin' But Godzilla" ends it all on another somber, stark production that makes the song's incredible melody all the more affecting.

As a whole, it's perhaps not as different from his Centro-matic efforts as its initial description suggested. Even when kept to a simple hush, the songs often recall much of his previous work, and even, at times, other tracks on this very record. Nevertheless, Johnson has once again proven himself a remarkably resourceful songwriter that is still struggling with issues of self-editing. At times, it reminds me of why Distance and Clime (2001) had initially let me down so much (it's since grown on me somewhat), and I still think it was a huge mistake to sequence "Dupree" and "Dream" as the lead-off tracks, but my previous experiences with Johnson shouldn't let any of this surprise me. Even his strongest works have had their distracting flaws ("Bitter (Did Anyone Notice That)," anyone?), and while Vultures may have a few more than usual, it's definitely not without its own unique, and continuously rewarding, merits. Keep 'em coming, Will. Scott Reid :: 20 October 2004 |