Review Summary: Searching For the Hows and Whys is a good album, but there's something missing.
Sam Duckworth means business. I learned that pretty quickly. Sure, his stage moniker – inspired by a Batman video game review, apparently – suggests a more laid back, perhaps silly musical venture. But Duckworth's music, it turns out, is fairly serious. Anyone who listened to
The Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager can tell you that. War, love, and injustice were all hot topics on Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly's debut album. 2008's follow up record,
Searching For the Hows and Whys, is quite similar to the English artist's debut effort both lyrically and musically. Whether that's a positive or negative will differ depending on what you thought of Get Cape's older material, but as far as I'm concerned,
Searching For the Hows and Whys is a good album, there's just something missing.
Throughout his sophomore record, Get Cape often follows a rigid structure. The music is fairly stripped down, driven by a combination of Duckworth's soft, acoustic strumming, his singing, and drum machine percussion. Right from the start of opening track "Let the Journey" begin, it's fairly evident that the singer-songwriter isn't so much concerned with crafting grandiose pieces, opting instead for simple pop melodies. That isn't to say that the album's sound never fluctuates from guitar pop, a point that the fast paced trumpet section of "The Children Are (The Consumers of) the Future" testifies to. However, the stripped down sound is featured most predominately throughout the record, and is utilized effectively in a song like "Better Things". Kate Nash makes an appearance, singing the first verse, and joining Duckworth for a duet during the chorus. The song's brooding disposition fits the talents of both artists rather well, and resulting in
Searching For the Hows and Whys' only truly outstanding song. "The Children Are (The Consumers Of) The Future", "I Could Build You a Tower", and "Keep Singing Out" are also fairly impressive outings; however, given Duckworth's sloppy lyricism ("
There's a war going on in the Middle East / and the fallout affects us all"– thanks for the heads up, Sam), they can be a bit hard to take seriously.
That the majority of
Searching For the Hows and Whys' songs follow a similar formula proves to be Get Cape's biggest downfall. Nearly every track attempts to convey the same depressing mood, and as result, the record doesn't exactly offer the best of first (or even second and third) impressions. The album is plagued by numerous filler tracks that sound identical. None of "Waiting for the Monster to Drown", "This Could Be All", or "Could Have Seen It All" bring anything new to the table, and get rather tedious to listen to, especially with multiple listens. And honestly, with lines such as "
You just sit there in silence whilst the world cries out in vain", "
but nobody out there's prepared to talk", and "
All of the products that they need you to buy / shareholder profits over Children's lives",
Searching For the Hows and Whys feels pretentious and preachy. I'm sure Duckworth's intentions are great and all, but he just seems too over the top.
Searching For the Hows and Whys makes for a strange listen. On one hand, it's a good enough album and I kind of feel like I should enjoy it more than I do. On the other hand, its weaknesses are just too irritating to ignore.
Searching For the Hows and Whys makes good use of charming guitar pop, and the likes of "Better Things" and "Window of Your Mind" demonstrate Sam Duckworth's song writing potential relatively well. He just needs to learn how to utilize it properly.
