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REVIEW:
Much of this CD is characterized by excellent feel, atmospherics, and music. The entire CD has a soft and easy, but not simple, feel to it, like sprung music captured at two or three a.m. and heard only by the players themselves. Sleepy, introspective. Much of it, alas is weakened by less than superb lyrics, some vocal style and production choices, especially on Mr. Forsey’s part, whether singing or drumming. All of the songs have fine arrangements and mostly fine musicianship, but the lyrics don’t always measure up to the music. All of the guitars, keyboards, and harmonicas are mic’d, mastered, and produced very well, the drums, not so.
“Just Don’t Belong” opens with Mr. Forsey’s breathy voice, and Eric Tischler’s organ and mellotronic background, like Dylan in the late, middle-late 60’s. “Simple Life” is simply stripped-down, oversimplified Springsteen in the 70’s. The poor recording of the drums reminded me of demos. The weakest link in The Simple Things, unfortunately, is the production or playing of the drums, both credited mostly to Mr. Forsey.
“I Can Feel You” starts out strongly, but it’s coda weakens it’s effect. It’s also a tad too upbeat for a 9/11 song. “Feel” and “Nine Lives” spotlight the general strengths herein: the fine organ work throughout by Tommy Lepson, the overall arrangements, and the musical if not lyrical creativity. “Lives” commemorates the effort and resilience of both the nine rescued souls and their rescuers from the coal mine disaster a few years ago, and contains some of Mr. Forsey’s best soft singing.
“No Reason Why” may be the only song ever written about the 2002 sniper shootings. Dylan-ish again. The thought struck me here that maybe Mr. Forsey was also looking for a Neil Young After the Goldrush-era sound, and that explains some of the lacking production polish. “Let the Anchor Take ‘em Down” features fine slide guitar work by Dave Hanbury. “The Last Thing” and the following tune, “Pretty Little Tree” have good atmospherics, but some occasional bad or misplayed guitar fills by Mr. Forsey, I think. “Tree” is a pretty little idea for a tune that probably should have stayed an idea.
“Down, Down” is too busy for most of its length, except for part of the middle third. “Rest in Peace” has some nice pedal steel by Dave Giegerich (also in other songs, as well) and Dylan-ish harp by Mr. Forsey. “Neshannock Falls” has some nice instrumental interplay between Mr. Forsey’s guitar and mandolin, and Mr. Giegerich’s dobro. It’s one of the most fully realized and successful songs here. “Soakin’ Up Aspen” has fine feel, with Mr. Giegerich’s pedal steel, Mr. Lepson’s wurlitzer, and Mr. Forsey’s harp line ending echoes. But the coda at the end did nothing for me.
At some point, I would have liked to hear Mr. Forsey open up and sing out. Even, or especially, multi-tracked, it’s hard to get a handle on what his full voice really sounds like. He also trumpets the virtues of this (nearly) all-analog recording. I have to say, though, that if I wanted to hear noise, crackles, and audible distortion at times, I’d have never transitioned to CDs from vinyl. Audio “purists” who profess the superiority of vinyl might overextend the argument to say that the only real recordings are on 78rpm. But the only essential remaining analog elements in music are the human voice, some microphones, many instruments, the people who play them, and all truly good audio speakers. The packaging photography, by several fine-eyed takers, including Mr. Forsey and his father, is uniformly excellent.
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