The Gravity
I like this album for reasons both obvious and obscure. I can’t explain the obvious ones without sounding like the Shrew in Shakespeare’s play. Bobby is a friend, so my enjoyment of the music might be a thing set in stone.
But I doubt it.
Starting with Aurora, The Gravity begins to weave a poetic journey through the complex mind of an artist. Written by Bobby and arranged by both of them (the whole album is a collaboration in this regard with one or two songwriting exceptions), I see growth in his writing and a willingness to be himself within the context of normalcy. He displays his influences readily, showing all the while what he’s learned from them, which is the arrangement matters more than the chords that bed it.
Aurora is a cry of desperation of sorts for understanding from us as well as the love interest he addresses. He is the moth to the flame unable help himself but at the same time realizing he has no idea what awaits him if he continues to be drawn to the flame of love, but, he declares he doesn’t care. The journey is worth the risk.
Like most of us his grasp of the concept of love is sketchy at best and non-existent at worst, except in instinct. With sheer honesty he paints the picture of a man who willing risks all for the sake of finding love’s El Dorado.
His voice is still rough, raw with emotion, and displays an unpolished poetry the words belie. I think it’s the honesty…may be even the fearless way Bobby sings that I appreciate.
Like his third song Bobby is a controlled Natural Disaster. An unpolished stone evokes no response from most of us. Yet once it is placed in a cleaner and polished to a sheen we find a diamond in the rough. He’s embraced the inexplicable nature of what it means to be unique while still the same as everyone else.
The I-IV-V and all its variations have been done so often we expect them. The chords become like a bland background for a shining moment in a painting. Much like grass in a nature scene where a beautiful bird or majestic character stands, the chords are just a prop for the main event—necessary but just there for support. Here they are used as a means of propulsion or form, I’m not sure which, but whatever it is it works.
I hear their influences in many of the arrangements. Like “Hollywood Ending” has a reference in the bridge to hip hop with the pitch effect on his vocal, on Bobby’s wavering voice it becomes more surreal than a producer’s stamp. “The Wall and Its Writing” displays the U2 influences with a delay on an electric guitar, but that’s as far as the influence goes in the song itself.
The Gravity started as an EP. Bobby originally intended to do a few songs in a stripped down form. An experiment of sorts, a foray into the world of pop music where he pursued mostly punk efforts before, the cohesiveness between the songs belies that goal. Almost without fail each song tells a story of either an observation of the world around him or his own experience, but everything expands the plot.
The production is slick to a point, yet, like that stone I spoke of, roughly cut and held together by a harmonic vision the guys share. Taking elements of other styles and incorporating them here they actually sound original rather than copied. Everywhere in the lyrics the references to the blind luck of love and the undeserving nature of the recipient broaden the experience of the lead character. Instead of running away, the protagonist embraces both facts in wonder.
Standing on the Edge celebrates the pull of love much like gravity. The repeats at the end pound the point home in vocal round which backdrops a lead guitar. The man in the song can no more resist the pull of love than he can defy gravity and he goes to great length to tell us why.
The last song sounds cynical but it’s not. It might be an attempt to be that way, instead it fails by being attached to the thread of the album itself. As luck would have it the last song becomes more a sarcastic tribute to a man trapped by his own feelings—like a hippy who gets a job where wearing a suit is required. The suit is despised but the job is a love. Just like the hippy executive, the songwriter can’t help but laugh at himself for being caught in love’s web.
Of course, it’s just the gravity…
To learn more about the band or hear samples of The Gravity go to the following links:
©2010 Jonathan Varnell
Tags: album review, artists, critique, music, published music, the gravity
