His Name Is Alive
Someday My Blues Will Cover the Earth
[4AD]
Rating: 6.7
Over the last decade, Warn Defever has recruited an ever-changing assembly
line of musicians to flesh out his mad, perverse fantasies under the His
Name is Alive moniker. All of his albums before 1996's Stars on ESP
are out-of-print in the U.S., so it's hard to trace Defever (once Warren)
back to his lo-fi goth-folk-ethnic-guitar-pop roots without paying over $20
for an import. What is available, therefore, is His Name Is Alive's
evolutionary pattern over the past five years.
Stars on ESP was a dreamy, occasionally psychedelic pop record, toying
with everything from stripped acoustic folk-pop to a complete structural
replication of "Good Vibrations"-- with a different melody and different
lyrics altogether. It's also the last album to extensively feature the
charmingly girlish stylings of Karin Oliver on lead vocals. 1998's Ft.
Lake then subtly throttled fans with a full-on gutsy rock attack,
although admittedly, it's nothing as fully straightforward as that; the
entire record is peppered with synthesized oddities, not to mention a couple
of trip-hop tracks to mix it up. Although Oliver appeared on the record,
new soulful vocalist Lovetta Pippen generally took the melodic reins. Then
in '99, Defever had the gall to go off and release a solo record entitled
I Want You to Live One Hundred Years, taking lo-fi to a new level by
recording most of the old-timey yet original folk material to Edison wax
cylinder.
For the latest outing, Someday My Blues Will Cover the Earth, His Name
is Alive solely consists of Warn Defever and Lovetta Pippen. How do we know?
Well, it's simple really; they're the only two people who have photos on
resident 4AD graphic artist Vaughan Oliver's gorgeously fitting artwork,
not to mention a terribly cheesy pun to cement the notion: "LOVE & WAR."
The record opens with Pippen's characteristic croon, but if you weren't told
this were His Name Is Alive, it would take a while to guess that this music
spilled from Defever's warped mind. Three quarters of Someday My Blues Will
Cover the Earth consist of a time warp back to the mid-90's, when slow
jam R&B; was innocent and carefree, while the rest is a mix between sparse
ballads and a couple hints at traditional blues.
Go back and read that again. No, wait, you don't have to. I'll just write it
again: carefree, mid-90's slow jam R&B...; for which Warn Defever is responsible.
Madness! Granted, it's not that much of a surprise that he's off doing
something completely different. But what is a surprise is that three years
after a record of rootsy pop/rock, and only two years after a country-folk
throwback, he's decided to take on Pippen for a collaboration and dive into
a project of this particular genre. What is alternately most and least
surprising about the whole affair is that they genuinely succeed, pulling
off the authentic sound without a hitch.
It's quite a shame, then, that not every track is up to par. Ironically
enough, a song called "Nothing Special" opens the collection by squandering
the album's best material in its first four minutes. Defever's sparse
acoustic arrangements and drum machine beats, characteristic of most of the
album's remainder, work best around a gorgeous melody such as this one.
Pippen's subdued, harmonized laments in the priceless chorus come off as
earnestly touching: "I've been in the storm so long/ Nothing special anymore/
Angel sings from another world/ That's all I hear anymore."
The only other success of this caliber comes later with "One Year," the
previous version of which can be found in wax-cylinder folk-style on
Defever's solo album. Truly funky wah-guitar, clavinet and reversed acoustic
strumming are used to the track's advantage, providing for a joyously
indulgent breakdown in the coda. The rest of the R&B; excursions are pleasant
enough, but as Pippen sang herself, nothing special. The melodies become
a bit same-y and, by the ending title track, appear somewhat hackneyed. The
only other guilty pleasure of this dominant style is on the slightly
over-long, slightly trip-hop "Write My Name in the Groove," in which Pippen
sings, in a melody recalling Stars on ESP's more restrained moments,
"If I'm quiet, I can hear your heart/ When I'm up on ya."
The two other notable moments on Someday My Blues Will Cover the Earth
are a true 12-bar blues homage, enigmatically titled "Karins Blues," and a
slowed-down, beatless, acoustic version of "Are We Still Married," originally
penned for the 1992 HNIA record Home is in Your Head. The latter is
the most beautiful moment on the record, gently plucked acoustic guitar
weaving in and out of haunting piano chords and string accompaniment as
Pippen lends true emotion to the record's best lyrics: "I'm kind of getting
shot at/ I'm kind of getting hurt.../ This is your last life/ Take me where
you want to go."
The ambition and daring that Warn Defever continually displays in his work,
with His Name Is Alive and otherwise, is undeniably admirable. His willingness
to plunge head-first into a style shows his versatility and knowledge for
creating authentic soundscapes of any kind, and his enthusiastic collaborative
spirit is infectious as well. While I can't fully recommend Someday My
Blues Will Cover the Earth as an entirely successful release, I can
fervently encourage a closer investigation into the rest of his brilliantly
eccentric catalogue, a look out for his upcoming work, and maybe even a
second glance at this record just to see what he's up to now.
-Spencer Owen