Customer Reviews

The Reluctant Graveyard

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

 

 

Sort of a Spoon River Anthology-type look at a graveyard, presumably somewhere in Minnesota, The Reluctant Graveyard is a great album. 'Dillinger Eyes' is getting all the radio play on The Current right now, and it's a pretty straightforward pop-structure rocker with a clever story. The lyrics here are intelligent but subtle, hinting at the stories they tell rather than spelling things out, like in "Toussaint, Grey, First in Life or Death" where the first mad dash home at the end of the schoolyard serves as a metaphor for the lost life of a child. All in all, these tunes are catchy, smart, and sometimes even moving ("The Repo Man"). This album is worth a buy- but check out Jeremy Messersmith's own site to listen to the tracks, get them in whatever file format you want, and set your own price (but please, pay him something!). This guy seems set to break out onto the national scene soon. Hopefully this album is the one that does it.

Totally am enjoying all of Jeremy's output. Spacey, organic, tuneful and melodic. Why anyone would buy from the resellers here on Amazon escapes me. After all, you can just check out Jeremy's site and for $35, buy this CD, and here's what else is included: immediate download of all the tunes, a beautiful sounding vinyl LP of all of the tunes, and a cool "The Reluctant Graveyard" t-shirt. Feed the deserved musician, not some reseller hacks looking to score bucks from fans who don't do enough research before hitting the "purchase" button.

Jeremy reminds me of M. Ward, Steve Ward, Sufjan Stevens, a stripped-down version of The Decemberists and Death Cab for Cutie, and a very mellow Chris Von Sneidern. And Paul Simon mixed with patches of Peter Case's career. Darren Hanlon, too. Elements of Brian Wilson. 60's pop-influences abound.

If you don't want the deluxe package of Jeremy's newest release, remove the t-shirt and you get the rest for $20. Or toss in CD versions of all three of his releases and it'll cost you $25.

I found out about Jeremy Messersmith when I saw the "Tatooine" video on Yahoo. I really liked the song and wanted to know what else the guy had done. After listening to a few samples, I thought it was worthy of download. The more I listened the more I liked this quiet, unassuming little record. Truly, every song here is solid, but the standout for me is "A Girl, a Boy and a Graveyard". Stark, spare, melodic, evocative and just beautiful.

I purchased this months ago and still listening to it. Jeremy deserves more exposure than he is getting; however, NPR's All Songs Considered and The Current's Musicheads have both thrown Jeremy a little year end 2010 reviewer love. If you like the late sixties to early seventies pop, this is for you. I hear subtle similarities to the Beatles, Beach Boys and Mama's and Papa's (please note, I am not saying Jeremy is in their league, there are just some similarities). The song "Organ Donor" seems to have received some attention. I cannot decide which song I prefer most. At this time "A Girl, a Boy, and a Graveyard" is sounding good. The fact is, there is not a stinker on this album.

This is a beautiful CD. I'm not sure what genre I'd even put it in, myself, because it's so different from everything else that is out there. If you need a palate cleanser from the generic sugar pop they play on the radio, try this CD. Then, go look up the shadow-puppet videos for several of the songs on youtube. You'll be amazed.

This is a very good album particularly for those like me stuck on notion that popular music should still be both interesting and accessible. The music and sound on "Graveyard" straddles that fifties/sixties nexus that was mined successfully by the best pop artists of my generation.

Overall the writing is sharp and the tunes are memorable. Not overly embellished, the music is "Bad Bad Leroy Brown" catchy without being same-y or for that matter "Pomplamoose" silly. The gotcha in the "Graveyard" saccharine sound, of course, is the macabre nature of the lyrics.

It will not escape the attention of anyone listening to this album that Jeremy may have one of the prettiest male voices in rock. Jeremy makes a persuasive case that a "Paul McCartney" sound can still be fresh in the world of modern rock.

Saturday, October 8, 2011, was a beautiful day in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Jeremy Messersmith performed a live concert of the entire Reluctant Graveyard cd, followed by a few new songs. The stage was set up in a cemetery a few blocks from South High School, which was attended by my children more than ten years ago. Ecce Homo by Nietzsche has a quote, "My paradise lies within the shadow of my sword," which the notes provided by Graham Parkes for the Oxford World's Classics translation of Thus Spoke Zarathustra identifies as coming from Emerson's essay on heroism. Page 216 has a king on the right telling Zarathustra:

`When the swords would whip around
each other like red-flecked serpents,
then did our fathers become well disposed
toward life,' (p. 216).

Minneapolis still has a few kinks to work out as Messersmith sought audience reaction to a new song about a guy named Steve after Steve is dumped by a girlfriend and comforted by his best friend. I live near McNally Smith College of Music in Saint Paul, where Messersmith is the teacher of composition. His songs have a professional level of sophistication. All the really old ideas are being overshadowed by the possibility that a song will tell Steve something he wants to hear. There might be additional irony injected into that song before it is recorded.