Shot out of a cannon, Our Good Wolf gets right to it with 'All the World Shakes'. An explosion of kick drum, snare and sweet bass with a jaunty guitar lick to start their remarkably elegant and varied album. Suddenly, like a smooth sip from a neat cocktail, Jordan Hon's crisp vocals serve to soften the blow. "A paper house in the wind, the angel sings" is a lyric that says more about their opening track than any way I could describe. A chorus of voices join in and the paper house tumbles. This is going to be fun.
The Last We Heard of Him, their 2016 album's title track is a blissful reckoning of the past. The best kind of storytelling through song, more akin to singer songwriters than art pop rockers. Our Good Wolf is just getting started and I'm hooked. That the band have backed up Hon's soft remembrances with an intricate intertwining of traditional folk and rock instruments to create a score one could skip along to serve to make the overall sound that more pleasing. Andrew Romero on keys, Kevin Holowack & Kàren Vaganyan sharing bass duties with Josh Lehman on drums might have already been playing together for decades if we didn't know they've only been around a little more than that.
Lead guitar player, René Schumacher checks in on vocals with 'Scruple', a fine track that would have one question why he hasn't taken the lead there, too if Hon's voice weren't as sublime. Shades of soul, blues and a touch of funk to go along with the sweetness of his tender voice is a pleasant shake up from what's come before. "The piano plays madly, the piano plays out of time, singing: who needs a distraction" goes Schumaker as his guitar wails on. I do, I do! It almost seems odd the band asked the question in the middle of this riotous tune. To hell with introspection, the guitar speaks again and again.
Most of The Last We Heard of Him may not have you up on your feet but Our Good Wolf is very much able to get you there. Where shades of Sarah Harmer or say, The Sundays abound, the band's willingness to juxtapose soul searching lyrics with a sometimes lofty, marching-step rock rhythm keep the album moving nicely forward.
"Love replaces innocence with innocence", the lyric that builds upon itself throughout the chorus of 'Lake' near the record's core could be taken as a bit of a metaphor to describe the album. These are songs full of life and love, though they also reveal a fresh start, a potential not broken but entirely aching to move toward more experience and in turn render more beautiful music. As in the song, Bowl and a Plate, something may have been shattered, "smashed up" , unrecoverable. Hon knows the journey is only beginning in so many ways. "I cannot take care of myself, let alone another", is the kind of idea that only those learning from their mistakes might understand. The pared down sound on Bowl and a Plate, reverb and exceptional finger picking on guitar make it one of the better tracks on Our Good Wolf's offering.
The Last We Heard of Him might have amounted to a bit of a depression style pop in the vein of Elliott Smith or more subdued Cat Power but its nothing like that. The band clearly love playing together. The music is playful enough at times to suggest the process of putting this ten pack of songs together must have been joyous. This band of fellows, fronted by Hon's melt of butter voice packs in a lot of what a pop rock albums should. Just when one might decide they have Our Good Wolf licked they introduce something new and vibrant to keep you interested.
Pop music has many genres within. The Last We Heard of Him falls toward a more introspective album. Where one might squirm having the window opened into the soul of another, Our Good Wolf's 2016 album is far from uncomfortable for the listener. This is pop music in the same respect that pop art can and does speak volumes to many who seek it out. The lyrics, music and production are very personal and nuanced yet instantly accessible.
-- Val Christopher
Listen Now
On Capital City Records!