Customer Reviews

Reverse Eclipse

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Everything Geoff Farina does is a delicacy, and his solo work is no exception. In this second solo album, Farina's "guy with a guitar" style evokes both his indie rock roots (Karate), a smattering of jazz influences and a beatnik coffee house vibe that smacks of irreverance and a brilliant attention to detail. It's unconventional, it's hard to classify, it is in short what great music should be.

Geoff Farina continues his solo efforts on Reverse Eclipse, his 2001 release that follows his earlier full-length solo, Usonian Dream Sequence (1998). According to Farina, most known for his more rockin' yet jazz-influenced band Karate and who also puts out albums with Jodi Buonanno in the quiet duo Secret Stars, he composes songs on his own when his band mates are too busy. Many people prefer Farina with some accompanying drums, guitars and/or vocals, and accuse him of self-indulgence when compiling his personal diary-like lyrics and setting them against simple jazzy guitar phrases that happen to be as obscure as his words. I happen to fit into that category, and although Reverse Eclipse is soft, pretty and "nice" music, I'd like to avoid the risk of putting myself to sleep while driving, or having images of my father enjoying scotch on the rocks and talking about the day's stock activities with his golf-loving friends.

My overall conclusion does not imply that I dislike every part of the album, nor does it imply that it's inherently boring and everyone should prefer Karate or Secret Stars. In fact, there are a couple songs - or even lines of lyrics in particular songs - that cause an interruption in my overall opinion, so much of a distraction that I begin to think that I want to recommend the album for a minute. And then I can't decide WHAT I think or WHERE I am - "Is it pure genius?" "Am I shopping at Nordstrom?" "Wait, am I supposed to understand this song...am I not 'deep' enough?" At some points in the album, I was amazed at his clever lyrics which say so much without saying hardly anything at all, and at other times I thought his vagueness simply existed for the sake of elusiveness - there to assert his profound, highly poignant musical style.

At this point, my opinion remains fairy stable. Reverse Eclipse is an album with a few great tracks, including "Special Diamonds," "Fire," "Only Yellows," and "One Percent," but the album as a whole is best described as inconsistent. The album starts off strong and I think I will fully embrace its poetic style, but somewhere in the middle I lose track of where I am and what he's playing and what he's singing and I'm suddenly transported back to the requisite Half-Yearly Sale that I was drug to every summer. Before I know it, I regain consciousness and I'm at track 12, "One Percent," completely captivated by Farina's delicate choice of words:

"So leave me alone with this page for awhile, as muscle-memories emancipate a silent smile. Over-dressed you are not as good as weekend-T-shirt-shoulders should support a sated, wine-finished face, and keep new memories in their proper place as they wait for words that strive for one percent of what our short times together meant."

But as the album comes to a close and I reflect upon the overall experience, I am left wanting more. I long for Karate's jazz-laced, bass-heavy, gentle, sparse, rock songs that repeatedly build-up to an orgasmic and tension-filled end. It's bands like Karate that keep me coming back for more instead of wishing there were more... I think the artist himself describes Reverse Eclipse's songs most accurately in his biography on Southern Record's website:

"To me, they beg to be sparse, slow, and abstract. Some of them sit around for years in various revisions on cassette tapes and in my notebooks with little astrists or other code reminding me that at least once I thought they contained a good idea or two. --Geoff Farina"

Although each song has a "good idea or two," Reverse Eclipse as a whole misses the mark, and leaves you waiting for the next Karate release.

this is a very clean and smooth record from start to finish. very smooth solos, riffs and chord progressions. the melodies are genius when taken in context with the guitar parts (which rarely correspond to the melody, and instead provide a solid backbone for it). and of course his voice is simple and classic. among the best records of all time in my opinion.