Dorks And Losers

I would be shocked if singer-songwriter Chris Gar­neau’s music hasn’t already been fea­tured on Scrubs. If it hasn’t, then I expect the Boston-native to be heard at least once dur­ing the show’s upcom­ing ninth season.

And no, that wasn’t a plug for a show that over the years has dis­ap­pointed me greatly, but that should serve as a quick and dirty ref­er­ence to the kind of music a poten­tial first-time lis­tener should expect to lis­ten to.

How­ever, if that serves as a deter­rent, then I will apol­o­gize in advance to Mr. Gar­neau. I was only try­ing to help.

I’ll try another one.

On El Radio (the follow-up to his debut Music For Tourists), Gar­neau chan­nels the quirk­i­ness of Andrew Bird with the del­i­cate dec­o­ra­tion of The Decem­berists. I hope that works.

The afore­men­tioned stylings hap­pen with a rel­a­tive calm that at times might seem a lit­tle too unstressed, while at other times seem rather dour — I have yet to fully absorb the open­ing “The Leav­ing Song” and all of its despon­dency. “Dirty Night Clown” (even with its higher tempo) some­how con­tin­ues the not-so-upbeat mood.

I had trou­ble pin­point­ing my exact emo­tional response that resulted after the many full repeats of El Radio. Did I feel upset? Not really. Did I feel depressed? Nuh-uh. It wasn’t until another lis­ten of the bal­lad “Hands On The Radio” that I real­ized Gar­neau had put me into a per­pet­ual state of vul­ner­a­bil­ity. The play­ful “No More Pirates” and the Nel­lie McKay–like “Fire­flies” some­what alle­vi­ated the ten­sion, but there was no use in deny­ing that I needed a hug — badly.

I des­per­ately wanted to be held by some­one who loved me for me. I know this wasn’t a Kelly Clark­son album, but I still felt like I was falling with­out a para­chute or like I was Mav­er­ick with­out Goose in the sec­ond act of Top Gun.

After the somber “Cats And Kids”, I offi­cially felt as if Manny Pac­quiao had punched me in the gut. It was too much. Life is too much. The “Black Hawk Waltz” can’t stop this emo­tional train­wreck. Chris, I think we need to take a break, at least for a lit­tle while.

[pho­tos via Tell All Your Friends]
____

Track list:

1. The Leav­ing Song
2. Dirty Night Clowns
3. Raw And Awake
4. Hands On The Radio
5. No More Pirates
6. Fire­flies
7. Home Town Girls
8. Over And Over
9. Cats And Kids
10. Les Luci­oles En Re Mineur
11. Things She Said
12. Pirates Reprise
13. Black Hawk Waltz

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