INDIE ROUND-UP for April 7 2005

This week's crop of indie releases proves that the slightly amateurish can be more satisfying than the slickly professional(ish) - it's all about inspiration and having something original to say. - JS

INDIE ROUND-UP for April 7 2005

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CD: Tim Young, Red

If you pine for the time when people could simply write songs and sing them, not caring whether someone called them rock, pop, folk, blues, country, or psychedelic - if you miss, I suppose, the late 60s and early 70s - you'll particularly appreciate this batch of heartfelt songs from New York City troubador Tim Young. Young's unschooled, urgent vocal delivery and lo-fi aesthetic combined with his solid and energetic guitar playing and fertile creativity places his music at the intersection between urban folk, heartland rock and outsider music.

I mention outsider music because Young's vocals sometimes get so enthusiastic they become what one might call unmusical. But even with his flaws Tim Young is impossible not to like. Many of the songs are well-crafted; all illustrate the human condition in its complicated glory and shame. The title track, for example, uses nearly surrealistic lyrics to say something that seems both unclear and deeply important:

One time I wanted red hair
I wanted it black I wanted it red
I'm alive I'm not dead
Go on get lost see if I care...
I live in the clouds under the cemetery
So dark in here I can hardly see

"Disaster" sums up this dark take on life in more straightforward fashion: "I've done drugs I've gone straight/nothin' ever eased the wait." But in contrast, another track I really like is the love song "Reason."

In his wide thematic variety, Young doesn't always hit the mark; "Torture" sort of is. (Well, it's not a pleasant listen anyway.) But the unlikeable moments on this long, sixteen-song collection are few. If you like this music at all, you won't mind listening to a long CD of it. If you need a sonic reference point, think Eric Burdon or Them, but with a softer, more lyrical side and a touch of country. Really, Tim Young mixes genres until there is no genre, just songs. And while there may not be anything on this disc as catchy as "Gloria" or "We Gotta Get Out of This Place," there's a full hour of meaningful music.

Article Author: Jon Sobel

Jon Sobel is Co-Executive Editor of Blogcritics. As a writer he contributes most often to the Culture section, where he often reviews NYC theater; he also writes a semi-regular review round-up of independent music releases. …

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