Review Summary: Strong vocal and instrumental performances can't save this from being an unmemorable experience.
After a number of lineup changes and a couple of indie label-released albums, Animal Liberation Orchestra (ALO) recorded and released their first studio album in 2007 entitled
Roses & Clover under Jack Johnson’s own Brushfire label. The album was one of promise that, given Johnson’s leanings toward the more laidback style of contemporary adult pop rock, felt more commercial and melodic in its assortment of jazz and folk-ish song structures when compared to the more free-flowing, loose style of songs that were found on the band’s Lagmusic releases. 2010 finds ALO returning from a few years of touring and diversifying into various side projects from band members Dave Brogan and Zack Gill to give us this year’s new release in
Man of the World.
Those that listened to 2007’s
Roses & Clover will not be too surprised with what ALO have to offer us this time around. The Jack Johnson-produced record is one that is filled with passive, almost bluesy jam sessions that feature Steve Adams and his three friends locked up and huddled together with nothing but their instruments and friendly inside jokes to keep them company. Tenth track “The Champ” gives a nod to a story telling-esque style of delivery that comes in trotting across speakers with a healthy set of distortion guitars to give
Man of the World’s most diverse-feeling song some appropriate attitude and drive. This song, however, is not the typical type of jam and flair that ALO have to offer on this album; instead, one should steer to the pop-oriented opener “The Suspended” for a Thursday-night drama, closing credits, resolution-type track. The band’s ability to diversify themselves across
Man of the World's playing time is something that should be commended, whether or not the record does happen to pass most by without much notice.
The laidback style of
Man of the World equally acts as the album’s primary strength and weakness. On one hand, you have the groovy, melody-filled piano and bass lines of 'moving-on' track “Put Away The Past” that one could easily find themselves humming along to while on their drive down Sunny Set Boulevard, and then on the other, you have the whispery, accordion-accented cuts like “Time and Heat” that seem to start and stop in the very same moment in time; the song then segues us into another snorer in “The Country Electro” before the aforementioned, attention-grabbing distortion of “The Champ” pulls us out of our daze.
Man of the World’s honest bluesy, folk-jam style of music is something you might hear in a coffee shop: perfect to fill in the background void of artsy paintings on the wall and to supplement that ‘intelligent’ feel that seems to inhabit such places, while at the same time, it's not enough to plead its case in efforts to get us to memorize the lyrics and sing along.
Perfectly light while perfectly unaffecting--that is the conundrum that ALO’s
Man of the World finds itself in. The band went into the studio with Jack Johnson at the helm to record an album that was based exclusively off live recording for an authentic feel. For their part, the band excels instrumentally with jazzy-jam sessions that detail a band that’s becoming quite comfortable with playing with each other. Still, that’s not quite enough to make this album something listeners will want to come back to, as, while it is well played instrumentally and the vocals of Steve Adams are perfectly suited for this type of thing, listeners will feel unaffected and apathetic to Adam’s lyrical subjects that are underlaid with the band's folk-like style of jazz. All of this together makes
Man of the World the type of listen that will please initially, this is true, but given a few days, listeners might accidentally forget it even exists.
