Quirky, gentle release from San Francisco Bay area songwriter and musician.
Angle of Repose is the fifth album from Bay area Blaine Todd, a newcomer to our site, but a release with a resonance with many familiar artists in the broad family that is Americana. Todd himself name-checks Terry Allen, David Berman, and Townes Van Zandt as influences in his press release, but you’ll also be hearing Bonnie Prince Billy in his Sings Greatest Palace Music era, and Smog in Todd’s gentle and quirky musical arrangements.
Opening track Someday is a gentle reflection on death and the meaning of life, opening with ‘’ I wait around for death/ With a dram of dream wine/ Wait for the rain to put food on the vine/ I wait for salvation to send me a sign”, in waltz time, with generous application of delay on Todd’s semi-spoken vocals, essentially a verse/verse song, with a refrain at the end, but no repetition, and an AAAABCBC rhyme scheme, belying the lyrical stream of consciousness feel, the acoustic guitar opening supplemented as the song progresses with percussion, keys and steel guitar. Indeed, Todd’s lyrics are prominent throughout the album, with strong imagery and a world-weary feel, sometimes leaning to the surreal.
All songs bar a calming instrumental, Scoot, are credited solely to Todd, this track a co-write with Scott Siler, who performs it solo on piano. Siler also contributes drums and vibraphone, with Henry Birdsey on pedal steel, and Todd playing guitars, banjo, mandolin, and bass. Trouble is an archetypal road song, with a spooky intro, and a sprightly mid tempo feel, and twang guitar, the verses telling the story of driving to escape, with the refrain “Trouble more trouble/ Like a lonesome whistle in the night/ Trouble lord more trouble/ Better find someplace to hide”, sounding like the soundtrack to a Coen brothers movie.
Pin Hill, also in waltz time, has a lo-fi intro, with occasionally atonal fiddle adding colour, while Packin’ Up has humorous lyrics, set against a pretty fingerpicking pattern, and pedal steel, a story where “You’re packin up, I’m packin in/ Lettin go like a fart in the wind /I’m taking the clown car/ Full of trouble/ Somewhere verdant/ Where the last stretch of desert by far/ Will be the space between the pool and the bar”, and “A little truth ache and big mistakes/ You break my heart and I’ll break your legs.”
Album closer Goodbye has echoes of Lucinda Williams Essence era recordings, gentle with subtle keys and guitar, and atmospheric sax credited to Adam Hirsch, and a lyric bold in its imagery “Like parsley prostrate on the plate/ I’m resigned to a kind of abstract fate/ When trouble comes, man, /It comes creeping through the wall/ Spills like a hernia and drapes like a pall.”
Storytelling with a leaning to the surreal, and a relaxed vibe, make for an album deserving of a late night listening session, maybe with a chilled beer!
