Review Summary: Duncan Sheik deliverers a solid sophomore album
The first time I ever heard Duncan Sheik was when I was watching the 1999 movie Three To Tango and the intro to 'That Says It All' plays over a sweeping panoramic shot of New York City, and it was one of the very few times that a piece of music in a film has made me feel so fantastically alive and eager to know who the artist was. So I looked on the internet found Duncan Sheik and now 3 years later I have all his LP's and listen to them reguarly. But I still recall the day I discovered Duncan Sheik and for the first week all I listened to was 'That Says It All'. Everything in the song was perfect to me, the beautiful intro that builds into the verse and the lyrics that convey the disappointments of life in one of the most honest way I have heard in a song on par with 'The Ice Of Boston' by The Dismemberment Plan.
That was my first taste of Duncan Sheik. and I didn't listen to this album until years later. So how does Humming, Duncan Sheik's second full length album compare to his first album?
It has improvements on the first album but also some dissapointments, that cancel each other out, so for me this album is as good as his self titled album. I think there are a collection of better songs on this album like "That Says It All, In Between, Rubbed Out and Bite Your Tongue". 'Alibi' and 'Nothing Special' are in my opinion very good songs as well. But the others are not quite up to the high standards set by the other songs. I think the album 'Duncan Sheik' is a better all round album that keeps a consistent level from beginning to end with the odd high on certain songs. But this album tends to go up and down a lot more, but the heights of the album reach further towards the sky, so they make up for the slightly disappointing songs. They are not bad songs though, both "House Full Of Riches and Nichiren" are both good songs, they just don't finish of the album in the way I would have expected. But there is a charm to that, the album takes a direction that is parallel to your own but just a bit off the standard progression that the album looked like it would take.
The album has less of the Oasis influence that was ever present on the first album but the composition doesn't seem to have changed much and he uses as much piano and guitar as on the previous album. The lyrics are less romantic then on his first album and a bit more pragmatic that gives it a more personable quality. There is a lack of a solo like on Serena which was one of the highlights of his first album, but he makes up for it with 4 outstanding songs. But as is the case with a lot of albums it's a story of two halves and the second half does tail away a bit, but a fantastic album that after 15 years still sounds fresh and relevant today as it did then.
Recommended Tracks:
In Between
Rubbed Out
Bite Your Tongue
That Says It All
Nothing Special
