A friend asked me the other day if it would be possible to write a record review vein of a musical genre. I mean we all get sick of the formulaic quality these things often take, don't we? For me this means constantly trying new things out. My biggest setback isn't in telling a reader whether I think some thing is terrible or fantastic, it's the curse I'm plagued with by most records that end up on my desk. How can I come up with four hundred words on how average a band is? And how do I make that something that someone wants to read? This brings me back to the original question; can you write a review that takes on the same qualities a particular sound does? Maybe I'm not ambitious enough, or maybe two years worth of liberal arts education has made me distrust anything too self indulgent in its craftiness, but after giving a thorough listen to Putois's The Problem is not a Problem Anymore I'm just not up for a stripped down, repetitive, and self indulgent piece of work that goes on another six hundred words longer than it should.
Singer Bob Mason is reliant on the low-fi sound for what makes up the twelve tracks and fifty minutes of the record, which comes across as something like basement covers of Bob Dylan played by a person hyper-obsessed with idea, not the music, of Brain Eno. Well no doubt that description shows potential for awesomeness, the rambling quality of The Problem is not a Problem Anymore fails to capture the poetic styling or epic qualities of either. As the title suggests what we get is a singer who makes a record's worth of music to sort out his own feelings, well never consistently addressing the depth needed to capture the emotion of the listener.
With fleeting moments of potential Mason keeps enough of a mystic to draw attention to his own seriousness about the project, and despite its shortcomings The Problem is not a Problem Anymore has something about it that allows for the listeners awareness of the strong feeling behind the record well never allowing an interaction with it. Maybe I just missed the point, but the finishing track "The Lonely Traveler" makes me think otherwise.
See also
Bob Dylan, Brian Eno, Acoustic
