Here's to Being Here is a dissapointment
Here’s to Being Here is the third in Jason Collett’s string of solo albums.
Published Feb. 12, 2008
Jason Collett, member of the glorious Canadian collective Broken Social Scene, continues his solo career with a third album, Here’s to Being Here, following the average Motor Motel Love Songs and Idols of Exile.
Broken Social Scene, an ambitious 15-member band renowned for its improbable but astonishing rock songs, gave birth these last few years to several major artists, such as the extremely talented songwriter Leslie Feist (who amazed both the public and the critics in 2004 with her elegant second album Let It Die) and Kevin Drew, who released his marvelous first solo LP Spirit If... earlier this year.
Audiences, thus, generally expect a lot from BSS members’ solo albums. And once again, the songwriter Jason Collett might disappoint. His new LP is indeed no more than an average album.
And yet, the opening track, “Roll on Oblivion,” promises more than his usual fare. This perfectly arranged song is indeed a rousing melody filled with catchy guitar riffs and vocal echoes. But a promising song cannot save this album of questionable quality.
Indeed, Collett, who admires folk singers like Bob Dylan, tries to pay them tribute with his albums, but that is the problem. By paying tribute to his childhood heroes, Collett does not seem capable of moving away from their music and offering a personal album.
If objective, there is really nothing bad to reproach about this album. The arrangements and instrumentation of most of the songs are pretty good; Collett’s voice, without being hesitant, has enough ingenuousness to be able to move you.
And yet, it does not work. Singing declarations of heartbreak with a plaintive mannered voice typical in folk singers and accompanied with acoustic guitars is not enough to achieve a great album anymore. Here’s to Being Here sounds extremely academic and lacks personality and emotion, both essential for this kind of music.
The comparison with his friend Hawksley Workman, another Canadian songwriter who used to be a member of Collet’s other band Bird, is inevitable. In 2006, Workman offered folk fans his wonderful Treeful of Starling. Collett does not seem able to achieve his goal of “capturing the bits of spontaneous magic in the studio that are just happy accidents of the day.” Workman delivered nothing else than a masterpiece of simple, beautiful and sincere folk songs. Sincerity is indeed one of Collett’s problems. Most of the lyrics are tasteless, flat and do not provoke any emotion. Thus, like an equation, this album is too planned and precise to affect the listener; it does not offer any originality.
However, a few songs do stand out. “Waiting for the World,” which completes the album on a better note, has a very beautiful harmonica opening and reminds a little bit of some songs of the great Elvis Perkins’ Ash Wednesday. It is too bad that we have to wait for the last song to finally be touched.
Collett might not write the most creative albums, but at least he will never disappoint in his consistency.