Review Summary: Careful Love is easy to digest, but isn’t very filling and tastes like a cheesy Death Cab rip-off.
I hope I’m not the only one who sees the immense value in album art. Often times, this is where I get my first, yet possibly misleading, impressions of the album. A pencil drawing of a young man offering his dripping, red heart to a towering bear- interesting. I was surprised to find out how literally this applies to Tim Williams’ new album,
Careful Love. While Williams didn’t actually entrust his heart to a bear, the drawing definitely has some significance. The year was 2007, Williams had released a moderately successful acoustic album, but shortly after underwent heart surgery. Tim Williams goes electric and alternative, and writes a musical diary about his recovery under the name of
Careful Love. It was this harrowing experience that prompted him to pen
Careful Love’s opener, “I Hit Another Wall.” With a catchy chorus and a downright infectious beat, “I Hit Another Wall” is just about as good as it gets on the album. Killer single material, this is the stuff teenage girls go gaga over after hearing it once on “The Hills.” Incredibly reminiscent of one-hit-wonder Carolina Liar’s “I’m Not Over,” “I Hit Another Wall” gets the head bobbing. It’s a shame Williams can’t keep up the momentum he builds with the first track.
It sounds like he runs out of steam after a few songs, and nowhere is this more obvious than on the dismal next few songs. Instead of trying to recreate that same liveliness of the opener, he goes for a slower, more thoughtful approach on “Ozone Street,” “Oceans,” and “All In.” While
Careful Love started out with a bang, it begins to fizzle already. Is it a dud? The farther I get through Williams’ latest, the more this rings true. His attempts to croon and coo never quite come off right, and I was left largely unimpressed. The last two, “Right All Along” and “8 x 10,” are especially disappointing and I wonder why they were even included at all. Williams redeems himself a little with the more thoughtful, beat-driven, “I Want To Die In California.” Looking back, the lyrics aren’t explicitly deplorable, and most of them apply to the ongoing theme of recovery and new beginnings, but at the same time not much can be said.
If only Williams could recreate that feeling he invoked with “I Hit Another Wall.” Everything else pales in comparison, and fades into the background. Furthermore, it makes me begin to see the similarities in ways I wish I hadn’t. Every song begins to sound like an apathetic Death Cab For Cutie rip-off; and I’m not even talking about
Transatlanticism, more along the lines of
Plans B-Side. While Williams hits gold with his opener, and “Stilts” is relatively enjoyable, his seeming lack of effort is a definite turnoff. While it may be a little harsh to see the benefits a more treacherous recovery from Williams’ heart replacement, I can’t help but think
Careful Love would have benefitted from it.
