Or, does the artist really want to read crap like this?

by Woodcock Johnson
November 2003

Weird title huh? It doesn’t have anything to do with the album I listened to last night – Deborah Falconer’s Brave Like Me. I mean it does have to do with the album, but not her music per se. It has to do with the proliferation of cheap digital recording gear and hundreds of thousands of average talent musicians who want to get their so-so songs “out there.” I should know I was/am one of those musicians.

Having said that, be warned - this review is going to be brutal, so if you don’t want to hear this crap just go on to the nice one on the next web site.

First I want to admit some stuff. I picked this album to review because it’s a girl from LA. When I got the CD in the mail, I knew my instincts were correct. She’s cute and naked on the cover. Not completely naked, but ya know, worth looking at. So the marketing is smart. Take your strengths and use them and she does that, visually at least.

Also, I listen to new music constantly and 98% of it is contrived, horrible crap. The worst offenders are people like Britney and Christina, and yes Avril (is she still around?). To Falconer’s credit her music is not contrived. It’s heartfelt and sincere. That doesn’t make it better, just more credible.

Since the advent of pro tools and the home recording industry explosion, there has been so much bad music produced that it doesn’t come close to making up for the few good songs that have been discovered.

I know that sounds anti-democratic, but it’s true. That doesn’t mean it’s bad (unless you have to listen to all the bad stuff like I do), but it IS true.

I don’t know if Falconer is a home recording artist or slugging it out in a so-called “bricks and mortar” recording studio, but it doesn’t really matter because, much like the movie director who can’t bear to edit his movie because he falls in love with each and every second of it, Falconer has fallen in love with her songs. The question is - is all that love justified? Since she brought her babies to the beauty pageant, I’m assuming she wants to know if they’re pretty? Since I’m one of the judges…No they are not.

I mean, if you’re looking for a kind of adult soft jazz background for your restaurant, I guess I wouldn’t walk out if I heard this album, but I wouldn’t remember it either. And that’s not as easy for me to say as you might think. I know what a musician puts into each song from writing to recording and producing, but it doesn’t change what I heard, it just makes it harder to say.

The songs were samey, bland and under-developed. I felt like I was hearing a minimalist demo from the school of Rikki Lee Jones circa 1990s.

As each song played through the speakers, I noted how they ran together production wise, vocally, lyrically etc. That may have been the intention, but it made for a very sedate listen. None of it really spoke to me on any level.

Obviously, a record made by a solo female artist is probably not supposed to speak to a fat hairy male like myself. It doesn’t change the fact that the songs just did not develop much from the original riff to the end. Lyrically and vocally each song was pretty predictable.

One song that I could sink my teeth into was a funky number called "King Size". It had the most energy and the tight bass riff and kick drum really opened up the rhythmic possibilities. In fact all the music on Brave Like Me was artfully and professionally done in the spirit of a very sedated Steely Dan. Unfortunately, it’s not enough to hold the listener’s interest.

Much like the Vanity Press of old and the billions of web sites of the present, the Vanity CD is now a reality. What it means is that a lot of stuff that would never see the light of day in the past when an A&R person might intervene by A. not releasing it or B. not signing it in the first place, will now be released to the world. Some, a very minute few, will make an impact on the music world and actually sell some CDs, the rest will end up collecting dust in the artists garage – as they should.

I’m the last person to discourage anybody from pursuing his or her dreams, being somewhat of a dream chaser myself. So my advice is, don’t read this review. If you do, think of it as part of the pain of the music biz that will make you stronger – no pain, no gain.

Anyway, this is just one person’s opinion and who knows, maybe Warner Bros will love the songs and Brave Like Me will sell a billion CDs. Not likely, but what do I know - I write reviews on the Internet.

www.deborahfalconer.com