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Ethan, Master of the Hawaiian Ukelele's So Real rests at the intersection of Kimya Dawson (before she was tainted by her intimate association with Juno) and John Prine. The full length is stuffed to the gills with the kind of stripped down songs about flawed people and everyday life that make singer-songwriters of a certain breed worth following.
Songs cover topics ranging from poker to that guy from the noise band that is just such a mess to deal with, and the sound is singer-songwriter smart. “Wore Out Your Welcome” revels in the influence of old muddy blues, and “If You're Acting Like a Baby (How're You Gonna Be Her Man)” has the lyrical content of a country classic, but the songs are more than cheap imitations and therefore at home on an album loaded with sly cultural references and John Darnielle-style autobiography. “Out of a Rut,” one of the album's best gems, sounds like a post-breakup anthem for people who grew up watching Sesame Street. So Real is playful without being trite, cloying, or just too cute, and flirts with emotional content without falling into begging, pleading, or whining.
Ethan, Master of the Hawaiian Ukulele [MySpace]
The first bars of the first song on Ed Harcourt's The Beautiful Lie sound misleadingly like “Jolene,” a bit of audio confusion that can be little other than disappointing, especially as the album, as a whole, is nowhere near as satisfying as that Dolly Parton classic.
Harcourt's latest is full of the Burt Bacharach-esque touches – the horns, the chimes, the soaring orchestration -- that have been part of the piano man's signature sound, and there are a few bits of very tender listening; “Last Cigarette,” like many songs dedicated to that subject is a plaintiff and trembling thing that works surprisingly well. But, the album as a whole lacks range, and most listeners have a lower tolerance for busted heart ballads than Harcourt seems to. How many rounds of “You Only Call Me When You're Drunk” or “Good Friends Are Hard to Find” do most of us need?
The act gets tired. Tom Waits, and, of course, Burt Bacharach just do it so much better. Hell, Harcourt himself has managed to do it much better.
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