Wind Up Bird Review Matthew Thiessen and the Earthquakes

Artist: Matthew Thiessen & the Earthquakes
Album: Wind Upwards Bird
Year: 2018
Course: B-

In Brief: It's really not that far of a stylistic bound from some of the mellower textile on Relient Thou's latest album to their lead singer'southward showtime solo anthology. While I enjoy the clever indie/baroque pop arrangements and witty wordplay, I accept to admit that but a handful of Thiessen'south songs on this album go along to stand up out in my mind, beyond the initial novelty of hearing him do an acoustic record.

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Matt Thiessen had a solo project gestating for virtually 2 decades before he finally managed to get Air current Up Bird finished last year. He's all-time known every bit the witty frontman for the pop/punk outfit Relient K, a ring that has rotated through genres and members and so much over the years that his occasional side project, dubbed Matthew Thiessen & the Earthquakes, never really struck me as a necessary artery for any of his songwriting in the first place. The side project kickoff saw its debut in 2001, with the rails "I Hate Christmas Parties" appearing on a BEC Recordings Christmas compilation, I suppose to differentiate information technology in tone from the Relient Chiliad rails appearing on that very same compilation. This runway was then absorbed into Relient K's own Christmas album released a few years later. Apparently the odd Earthquakes rail would surface as a one-off single or compilation advent, with some of them also getting reworked equally Relient K songs over the years. The solo project was just something Thiessen worked on in his spare time, at least up until the ring took a break after 2016'south Air For Free, a record that was already a stylistic smorgasbord running the gamut from the trusty old Relient Yard audio to some more than acoustic, piano-driven, and even baroque popular-leaning fabric that truly surprised me as a longtime fan of the ring. The timing was just right at that signal, with RK downwards to 2 members anyway, for Thiessen to make practiced on his promise to put out a solo album. Before in the 2010s, during the era of the disastrous Collapsible Lung, I'd have been profoundly uninterested, and any earlier than that, I might have had a tougher time accepting the radical departure from the band's audio (though a look back at albums similar Five Score and Seven Years Ago and Forget and Not Wearisome Downwards reminds me that they were up for a fair bit of experimentation back then, too). When Wind Upward Bird finally dropped late concluding summer, it only felt so correct, striking me every bit the perfect sort of laid-back acoustic album to put on and savor a lazy summer morning.

For all of my effusiveness about the mellower instrumentation and the pretty little arrangements, though, I had to acknowledge that this album felt like a bit of a diet snack compared to a magnum opus like Air For Free. At 11 tracks and 35 minutes, a lot of these new songs might seem to have the witty wordplay and the aw-shucks charm we've come to expect from Thiessen, simply some of them breeze by and so quickly that they barely register. My level of interest waxes and wanes rather profoundly over the course of this cursory petty album, peaking when the vocals of Thiessen and his frequently employed backing vocalists Ellie Schmidly and Robert Gay dovetail beautifully with a light but tricky beat (drums on this album are played by Darren Male monarch of former MuteMath fame, if you can believe it) and only the right mix of auxiliary instrumentation to plough an otherwise blank-bones song into a brief flare-up of kaleidoscopic colour. My patience with this record tends to lesser out when Thiessen bases most of a song around just the piano or guitar without as much accompaniment – the "Earthquakes" might function as a role-time band, merely information technology actually it seems to be just him and an ad hoc collective of musicians that rotate in and out depending on the vocal, and so I tin can understand the more introverted approach fifty-fifty if it doesn't tend to exist every bit engaging. Unfortunately, in that location's a handful of several songs right smack in the middle of this album where I feel similar a lot of the most half-baked material is sort of clumped together. It starts and ends stiff, with songs that easily sink their melodies and their novel little hooks into your brain, but the transition point where I go from thinking, "This anthology is an underrated work of brilliance!" to "Nah, it'south just OK" is quite noticeable.

I'grand also surprised at what an enigmatic songwriter Thiessen turns out to exist on this album. I know from past experience that he tin write, long meandering stories just as easily equally he can write bold, simple anthems about his religion in God, or joke songs that are packed with wall-to-wall puns. Here, while his lyrics are quite playful, humor by and large doesn't seem to be the intent, and where the lyrics appear to hint at personal stories, they're sometimes buried in a ambiguous heap of alliteration and other fun footling natural language twisters. I feel like I can recall a lot of the lyrics on this tape, but I had to have a long hard look at Genius.com in club to cypher in on exactly what several songs were about. That may be intentional, and in fact it may have been the entire impetus backside this tape'south existence, rather than saving these songs for the occasional advent on future Relient K albums. As a solo artist with a much lower contour, he'southward freed from the expectation that his songs accept to hateful something to a fanbase that has projected at least a solid decade'due south worth of their own personal experience onto the style that they identify with the ring. Information technology's fun to hear an creative person completely freed from his constraints. But given that, I suppose I would accept expected something wackier, weirder, a little more than ambitious than the morsel of an album nosotros ended upward getting. Wind Up Bird is kind of similar the island of misfit songs – information technology's a fun place to visit, but it'south not quite exotic or surreal enough that it entices y'all to spend significantly more time there.

Private TRACKS:

1. Dude
I usually observe the whole gimmick of starting a record off at conspicuously low volume, and then all of a sudden diggings the listener with a sudden burst of energy at full book, to exist cliched and irritating. Particularly when there are lyrics during the repose part. But Thiessen pulls that off with enough clever self-sensation in the opening verse of this song that I have to admit I'1000 amused. "This i's for the boys/Don't plow it up, don't turn it up." See, he'southward advising the states non to adjust those volume dials because the trouble will sort itself out soon enough! (Well, I thought it was funny at least.) Information technology helps that attaining "total volume" after a poetry or so of this doesn't all of a sudden assault the listener with a wall of sound – this one's by and large just a bit of nimble acoustic guitar picking, and some calorie-free backing vocals that gradually assistance it to reach a modest crescendo. And the song is more than just a cutesy gimmick – equally much of a throwaway as you might expect a song called "Dude" to be, there's some underlying insecurity apparent in the lyrics, which express a feeling of being "locked in a muzzle" and needing help, perhaps due to feeling like he still hasn't attained true machismo after all this fourth dimension. Information technology's a comparable feeling to the one he expressed in Relient K's "Homo", though that song was more resolved to just wake upwardly and get it done anyway, where equally this song seems a trivial more similar the issue of unfiltered nervousness and self-doubt. I chuckle at the wink and the nudge here, but I as well experience some of his pain.
Grade: B+

2. Homo of Stone
In that location'south probably a lot more than to this album's lead single than I'm always going to unearth. It's the catchiest song on the tape past far, while also existence one if its densest in the lyrics department. Once over again I capeesh how the song is congenital effectually an acoustic arpeggio, not only a riff made upward of simple chords, and there's a more prominent backbeat in one case the song gets going than what you'll hear on most of the album. Thiessen a curiously confessional tone as he hints that he but might not accept been the squeaky-make clean role model that the prying eyes of the Christian music industry might have expected him to exist all these years: "Y'all got your ink, only you call back you might have taken it/Too far earlier forsaking it, you lot covered up your nakedness/Now all you own is curtain wearing apparel/It's not a sin when your pare is telling everything/How could you always lie about the girls that y'all were trying out?" But enough of this song is ambiguous that information technology'due south hard for me to say for sure that he's coming to a specific conclusion about any of these romantic or sexual dalliances, or even what's real and what's fictional. This is all stuff that just seemed to have been swirling around in his head, and that I'k assuming didn't need the baggage of being released on a Relient K album and pored over past listeners with more than of a perceived agenda for what their music is supposed to be virtually. By the time he throws a bit of the Boy Scout motto, "On my award, I volition do my best/To exercise my duty to God and my country" into the bridge, I've given up on making much sense of information technology, only this song sure is an intoxicating mixture of odd images and fun sounds.
Grade: A

three. Forest
Even by Thiessen'southward standards, this cute little song about Robin Hood and Piddling John seems a fleck random. Did you lot always encounter the Disney adaptation with the cartoon animals? Patently this song was written as a prequel to the "Oo-De-Lally, Golly What a Twenty-four hours" song from that motion-picture show. And information technology has the audacity to feature the line "Robin Hood and Little John were rockin' in the forest", while not doing anything fifty-fifty remotely resembling rocking. This is a twee popular song no matter how you slice it, with its humble audio-visual origins and its cutesy whistling gradually getting overtaken by a fake-jazzy horn section, complete with glaringly out of place saxophone. It's a deliberate mixed purse of sounds just for the fun of it, on a song that doesn't seem to have much in terms of lyrical implications across just 2 buddies meeting up in the woods and deciding to be lifelong friends while one of them helps the other to eventually meet his Maid Marian. Information technology could be an apologue about someone who was of import in Thiessen'southward life, only he'due south so firmly embedded in this piffling drawing globe he'south decided to flesh out a bit of the backstory to, that he's not really giving us much of a real-life roadmap. I will say that Thiessen, Schmidly, and Gay all merchandise off vocals quite effectively here, then at least they've managed to nail the light-hearted sense of camaraderie depicted in the vocal.
Grade: B-

4. Oedipus
This song is interesting for many reasons. It's faster-paced and I honey the sound and texture of it, but it'southward as well very light on its feet, with the lyrics most feeling similar a whispered lullaby in places, coaxing a nervous child into falling asleep in the race automobile bed he had spent most of his childhood dreaming nigh owning. That desire for something a immature kid would find awesome, only that an older kid might find an embarrassing link to his past if he were to visit habitation and still have to sleep in it, seems like a symbol for the same sort of conflict between becoming a man and staying stuck in boyhood that drives a few of the tracks on this record. And so at that place'south that title. Wow, where do I even begin with that one. The lyrics seem to make Oedipus the title character of this bittersweet song about childhood, fifty-fifty though they never draw an explicit connection to the tragic Greek tale of a human being who was foretold a prophecy that he would kill his male parent and ally his female parent. Knowing the implications behind that proper noun certain adds a layer of uneasiness to an otherwise delicate and pretty song. And don't get me wrong – I rather similar that Thiessen did this without choosing to explain it. Information technology turns this song into one of those where you could debate interpretations for days, and not even exist 100% sure that y'all desire to know what information technology'south really near. I sure practice want to be lulled to sleep when those gorgeous horns and strings come in, though – peculiarly at the tail end, when the soothing outro reminds me of something that might have happened in the margins during Air For Free's back half.
Form: A-

five. Climb
Here's where the anthology seems to fall off of that cliff that I alluded to earlier. Information technology's non like the songs of a sudden go awful or anything. I just notice later those first four tracks, iii of which were pretty skillful and 1 of which was featherbrained but at least musically memorable, that I don't really care what's going on for almost of this next stretch. In a few songs similar this 1, it'south considering Thiessen gets off on the incorrect foot by leading with a rather bloodless version of the vocal'south chorus, and the vocal seems to build awkwardly from there, kind of ruining the climactic effect of having that chorus show upward later. Information technology'southward weird that I remember this ane every bit by and large a bunch of dry strumming and Thiessen reaching for loftier notes that his slightly scratchy vox doesn't always striking, because he does bring in percussion and backing vocalists and I think even an electrical guitar after. Information technology just seems similar too little, too belatedly at this point – the record has lost its light simply nimble momentum and information technology'due south gonna accept a difficult time getting it back. I can hear a lot of wrestling with self-inflicted wounds in the lyrics, which is something Thiessen'south generally been good at when he considers personal disharmonize and his own part in those messed-upwards relationships: "First speaking the truth and stop abusing those that give you beloved/Thrashing about and slashing out until yous scar it up/Relationships need not exist pressed to the limits that y'all test them to/What if they abandon you." Those lyrics are quite telling. I'yard just not feeling much of anything virtually most of the residual of the lyrics, which make the act of slowly inching up a steep incline sound just about as enjoyable every bit it really is.
Grade: C+

vi. Mother's Triumph
I'yard just now noticing that Todd Gummermann plays the organ on this song (and one or two others likewise). What is this record, a identify of refuge and sanctuary for people who have been unceremoniously kicked out of MuteMath? You'd call back the results would be far more interesting, with that being the example. This is ane of those songs where I'd say it is a 100% typical example of the audio of this record every bit a whole, nonetheless try equally I might, this is probably the i I call back the least about. It's up-tempo. Information technology's got more pleasant guitar picking and horns and stuff. It'south got some nice lyrics well-nigh Thiessen going to his in-laws' firm in Connecticut and gallivanting off into the forest with his wife and carving their names into a tree trunk and stuff. But when I think virtually what this all ways to me, or even how listening to this song makes me feel, there's no there there. I'yard just sort of blank-faced… it'southward nice, merely I've got no existent reaction, and before yous know it, we're already on to the next rail anyway.
Grade: C+

7. Higher Power
While the centre of this anthology is populated by lesser songs that don't live up to the potential in its first and last few songs, this is the but ane that actively irritates me. I feel like I should like this. Information technology'due south a pianoforte ballad similar to "Flower" from Air For Costless, a track that slowly grew to become one of my favorites on that album despite its inauspicious beginnings. This i just isn't growing. I detest how Thiessen shoves the chorus right upwards front once once again – it's trying fashion likewise hard to be all cutesy and dramatic and perhaps even a lilliputian Ben Folds-y, and I just sort of want to smack him and yell, "Earn it!" I tin can appreciate how this is actually just a humble prayer that God will give him strength, and he'southward trying to limited that creatively in his own words instead of falling back on CCM cliches (and I can safely say that this record dodges that bullet entirely). But he's conspicuously more in dear with the goofy wordplay here than he is with his later attempts to say something meaningful: "Golly-gee willickers, I got the heebie-jeeb/Bone chillin' feely brrrs right up my spiny sleeve." That nonsense kind of undercuts his later struggle with how much to take on himself and what to get out up to God: "Don't know if I believe it could exist up to you/Clearly it's up to me to be happy and loving and gracious/And kind to the people and good to the places/Where I could alive whole-hearted days full of sweetness, sweet joy." Other than a brief aside from Ellie, at that place's no existent second verse – the tongue-twisting showtime verse repeats itself, bringing the whole song to a country of arrested development amid the forced drama Thiessen is trying to wring out of each weirdly placed loftier note. I don't like being tempted to skip songs on an album this short, only this is where I come up the closest.
Grade: C-

8. Clean Sweep
This one'southward alright. It'southward faster-paced, and while the acoustic guitar strumming seems a bit muted here, I like how the drum rolls help the song pick upwards momentum as Thiessen gleefully declares that he's repainting the walls and basically started over with a life he made a mess of earlier. It's an understated happy song, and perhaps it suffers slightly for stifling its own key claw, only I like the texture of information technology – the warm trumpet, the style it picks up energy as the poetry turns a corner back into the chorus, that sort of stuff. It'southward a good song to heed to in the calendar month of January, I think, as people are typically trying to meliorate organize their lives and brand practiced on their New year'southward resolutions (and especially with this whole Marie Kondo craze currently sweeping the nation).
Form: B

nine. I'm Gonna Cry
I probably didn't give this song a off-white shake for a while, due to its positioning on the anthology, and my patience already existence spent by the earlier ballads that set up a like mood. This one finds Thiessen over again crying out for help, every bit in "Higher Power", simply the lyrics ring a chip truer considering they're not only an admission of needing help from a man friend or loved one he is very shut to, but also a confession that he's hurt that person as a side result of all the misery he's put himself through, and he's trying to heal that relationship by being vulnerable with them instead of lashing out. There's a lot more than to these lyrics than I had initially noticed, which probably has something to do with the fact that the delicate guitar playing hither doesn't exercise a lot to draw attention to itself, until the bridge, where information technology gives away to more confident strumming and a wash of pleasant layered vocals, merely to be stripped back once more and stop on a near-whisper. It still isn't 1 of my favorites on the album, but I estimate I've been persuaded to salvage it from the scrap heap I was initially tempted to relegate most of the middle section to.
Grade: B-

10. Current of air Upward Bird
The last 2 tracks definitely bring this album back up from the doldrums. The title rail is definitely one of its most upbeat entries, finding Thiessen in a place where he can more believably mix the wordplay and general silliness with 18-carat and vulnerable thoughts about whether he can consider himself a true grown-upwardly yet and whether he even wants to feel like one. Admits some of the weirder lyrics which, I kid you non, include an actual endeavor at mimicking a bird call in the span section (it comes out something like "Male monarch Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O!", co-ordinate to Genius.com anyway), he's actually admitting stuff like "I don't want to get a real job/I don't want to take the monthly slap on the wrist", which is a sentiment I've heard from a lot of creative types who make music for a living and don't have to work "real jobs" similar the rest of usa (though for anyone working a federal government chore correct now, existence a "starving artist" type probably looks more stable). The reason it works for me in Thiessen'southward instance is because he'southward framed the album as a big question marker concerning his own maturity, and this vocal kind of turns it into an honest question about whether living the life of a rock star has kept him in a state of arrested evolution. I like information technology when an album's art reflects the mood of its songs, or at the very least its title rails, and this arrangement definitely gets the job washed, working its way up cute from a simple guitar and piano to a cursory but exhilarating climax with pounding drums and the aforementioned "bird telephone call" vocals.
Grade: A-

eleven. Daydream
The anthology closes on some other one of its shortest tracks (near of them take hovered around the three minute marking, with this one and a scattering of others wrapping up not long after two and a half), once once more working the twee pop angle, and using Ellie's vocals prominently enough that this almost feels like the sort of duetZooey Deschanel would desire in on. (Yep, I somehow managed to shoehorn in a reference to her two reviews in a row. I can't assist it; she comes to heed whenever I call up of excessively cutesy acoustic pop songs.) This ane has a slight skip in its stride as Thiessen muses, "Whatever I imagine is gonna happen/So I'yard dreaming 'bout y'all." It'southward a pleasant idea to end the tape on, especially as Ellie's last few lines gradually fade into the final few twinkling piano notes, but given all that's come up before, I take to wonder: Is this a celebration of total bliss in a human relationship, or just a man living in his own head, unable to escape the unfulfilled longings of his youth? Taken on its own, in that location's no reason to see this one as anything but charming, merely taken equally the final thought on an anthology where playfulness oftentimes masks emotional turbulence and uncertainty about the hereafter, it plays as mildly tragic. I similar that ambiguity. It adds a touch of depth to a record that might otherwise seem to slight and cutesy for its own practiced.
Course: B+

WHAT'S Information technology WORTH TO ME?
Dude $ane.25
Man of Stone $1.75
Forest $.75
Oedipus $ane.50
Climb $.50
Mother'south Triumph $.50
College Ability $0
Clean Sweep $i
I'm Gonna Weep $.75
Wind Upwards Bird $ane.fifty
Daydream $1.25
TOTAL: $10.75

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