James Murphy said he's obsessed with
where songs are coming from, 'a place', 'a moment' - and it's that
self-investment which allows ones expression to bring songwriters to their
knees in emotional anguish. Songwriters can bring their listeners to tears through
the beauty of music, or a heart-throbbing story of pain which has an iconic
reflection of the listener. Murphy did this well with his songs, but not to
the extent of scathing lyricists such as Elliot Smith, Nick Drake, Arthur
Russell, and to some extent, Morrissey. They gut you; they tear that beating organ
inside you apart with their own daggers of wisdom. Stories of loss, depression,
greed, and anonymity within a society which moves so fast even David Byrne
is unable attract people’s attention. The truth is, things do fall apart - and the
beauty of that moment is the deliverance of a body of work - a Pink
Moon, an Either/Or, an Ish.
James
Clayton's repertoire consists of blatant sad songs. You may not be susceptible
to feel the feels, but with Clayton and his pseudonym
Crywank it's pretty hard not to. He speaks the songs you're too macho to write,
the songs of his predecessors Drake and Smith, with personalised stories from a
place, a moment - "Baby Self Absorbed". Clayton starts this release
with a simple, almost sweet song sounding like Justin Vernon on the layered
vocals, and a voice in the dark with the lyrics: "It's a guilt trip, to know
me." And that's it,
two minutes gone - a reasonably long time for a Clayton song if I may add. But that's
doubled with "Dan Have You Watched Blue Streak Yet?" a gritty,
powerful track musically with distorted guitars driven primarily down the left
channel.
Clayton's song titles have often left listeners baffled while
searching Google - from the American Beauty ridden "The Only Way I Could Save Myself Now Is If I Started Firebombing"
/ "It's Ok, I Wouldn't Remember me Either", to The Simpsons'
"Deep Down I'm Really Kirk Van Houten". Clayton likes to use
fictional characters to represent his feelings in a more visual sense - the
apathetic Lester Burham, and the feeling borrower Kirk Van Houten. This is how
Clayton wants us as listeners to react. He uses others to signify his feelings
through song - which is then passed on to audiences to reflect our feelings through
Clayton.
Musically, Ish is more experimental. It's been
slapped under the title JC & The Nobodies as
a solo body of work to distinguish it from his work with Crywank which now
boasts two other members. This allows Clayton space to go back to his roots and
start fresh with his guitar and self-producing skills without help - straight
from the man himself. "Lucky and Wasteful" opens with the initial
Crywank sound - a pounding guitar playing three chords over and over. The
vocals here are edited to sound jagged and rough over quite a relaxing
instrumental. This is backed by the layered backing vocals where oooo's
can be heard to the surprise of the lyrical content: "Sing about bad
decisions, ignore good advice." /”I
know I don't deserve this." Again,
an Arthur Russell comparison comes up with "Treehorn" with the
reverberated guitar and estranged instrumental which follows -
again reflected on the final track "Comfort" with a more
sinister dependent on chord progression.
There's no escaping a Clayton release having heard the previous three
Crywank albums. Ish however is differently
in style. "Baby Self Absorbed" is actually melancholic and wouldn't sound out of place on an
Elliot Smith album - while "Dan Have You Watched Blue Streak
Yet?" gives Clayton a whole new dimension with distortion. But
it's really the closer "Comfort" attracting me to Ish. There’s a feeling of
sorrow even before Clayton has said a word, and that's very important on these
'sad' style releases. When the vocals kick in, the audience is left with a
summary of Ish - "Is it the pain that keeps
me going, is it the love that makes me stop," leaving you wondering
where the song has come from, which place, which moment.
~Eddie Gibson
8.0
