If
“Hey Everybody” doesn’t draw you into this album and bring a smile to your
face, check your pulse. Some might dismiss this track as a throwaway, but
that’s a superficial knee-jerk take on an obvious album opener brimming over
with an affirmative spirit and inspired guitar playing. Bandleader and
songwriter Ryan Shivdasani has a clear penchant for utilizing studio effects to
enhance the atmospherics of the band’s recordings, but strip away the artifice
from tunes like “Hey Everybody” and you still have musical gems capable of
entertaining listeners in studio and live settings alike.
“The
Merrymaker’s Orchestrina” is one of the more idiosyncratic musical and lyrical
offerings included on Little
King and the Salamander, no small accomplishment, but it isn’t so
precious and far removed from the common listener’s experience that they will
reject the tune. It has an unusual jazz influenced flair, but Shivdasani and
his collaborators never overplay their hand in this regard and mix it with pop
structures in a compelling way. The chorus is strong and has an abbreviated
cascading effect that will stick with you after a single listen. There’s a
strong cinematic texture defining the mid-tempo “White Light and Lullabies”,
another song shaped in a big way by Shivdasani’s judicious use of effects, and
he delivers one of the album’s best vocals with this track. The melancholy of
his voice is well suited to the dark lyrics, but it isn’t a track wallowing in
despair. The songwriting on this release is far too canny to ever be so crude.
“Particle
Craze” is one of the cornerstone tracks on the band’s previous release Act 3 and included here
in demo form. The Act 3 version
has some musical elements absent from this earlier take on the track, but it is
fully satisfying in this form as well and connects with listeners early. The
unique lyrical imagery is something shared by all Merrymaker’s Orchestrina
tracks and it testifies about the extent of Shivdasani’s songwriting skills
that he can take unusual language and use it to fuel new takes on well-tested
subjects for songs. “Together” has a rough and ready alternative rock take on
another traditional songwriting subject, longing for a significant other, and
the uptempo pace gains even more momentum thanks to the song’s uncluttered instrumental
makeup.
The
oddest points in the release come with the tracks “Jeepers Creepers” and
“Definitely Not My Underwear”. The former track is sort of coffeehouse poetry
gone mad with an unpredictable jazz infused backing capable of taking turns
wherever it likes yet never losing the listener. It is quite unlike anything
else included on Little
King and the Salamander. The latter cut is a blast of
psychedeliczed acid rock in the vein of early Pink Floyd or Hawkwind, but
Shivdasani’s humor has a quality all its own that helps keep this distanced
from imitation. The Merrymaker’s Orchestrina’s Little King and the Salamander includes
fourteen songs spanning a wide array of musical styles and never fails to hold
listener’s attention.
Carrie Logan
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