Album Reviews

A Shiny New Machine Rating: 9.2

Track Listing:

1. Brooklyn Boy
2. You’re Trailing Yourself
3. Just Stay
4. You’ll Only End Up Joining Them
5. Billion Bees
6. Less Yesterday, More Today
7. Like Cursing Kids
8. Go Haunt Someone Else
9. The Burning City Smoking
10. Me & My Friends
11. Trouble
12. Heaven Bound And Glory Be

First off, I must make a confession. I’ve been a huge KD fan for some time now, so, to steal a line from the classic film / rock and roll tour-de-force “Airheads,” this album could have been “Pip farting on a snare drum” and I probably would have given it a positive review. That being said, I honestly believe Kevin Devine’s major-label debut delivers both for new listeners and those more familiar with Devine’s humble tone.

Devine opens his fourth album with an introduction and the type of honest lyricism his fans have come to expect: “Brooklyn boy, born and raised / Chopping lines, hey hey.” The latter line a reference to his struggle with cocaine; a topic revisited a few other times throughout the album (“You’ll Only End Up Joining Them”, “Me & My Friends”). Like his previous albums, PYGTR is split between soft, heart-breaking tunes and more up-beat rock-out numbers, with a majority of the tracks falling somewhere in between. Stand-out tracks on the album’s softer side are the ultra-folksy “Less Yesterday, More Today” and the concluding subtle lullaby “Heaven Bound and Glory Be.” While the heavier songs never quite match the intensity of earlier KD songs like “Cotton Crush,” tracks like “Trouble” and (the last minute of) “Just Stay” are sure to produce some serious head-bobbing.

Lyrically, Kevin Devine remains in top form. His talent for alliteration shines on both “Like Cursing Kids” and “Go Haunt Someone Else”; the latter of which boasts lines like: “The moralist on the mountaintop / the cap gun cowboy caught playing dress-up…” among other equally impressive strings of words beginning with similar consonant sounds (unfortunately there’s no synonym for “alliteration”).

Prior to the release of this album I read a few concerns that Kevin Devine was being picked up to a major-label solely in the hopes that he could marketed as the next Elliott Smith. While Devine does list Elliott as one of his major influences, there is something distinctly different about his music: the element of hope. Not to take anything away from Elliott Smith (and believe me, I am a huge fan of his as well), but listening to a Kevin Devine album puts me in a better mood than I was in before listening to it. While he does share Elliott Smith’s ability to break hearts (forgive me for the preceding and following moments of corniness) he also seems to have the uncanny ability to repair them as well; all during the same song. And in case you’re not convinced, Kevin Devine himself seems to allude to his more hopeful side in the song “Just Stay” when he informs the listener: “I sing like this, it sounds worse than it is/ I’m okay.” Kevin Devine’s first release for Capitol Records is more than just “okay;” it’s awesome.

My Favorite Line: “I drift into a dream / And I’m sailing on some sea / Shooting whiskey with my Irish bride” – From “Trouble”

MP3: Brooklyn Boy

MP3: Me & My Friends 

MP3: Just Stay (Live at Shubas 5/13/05) 

POSTED BY: Chris