Post-War

Post-War
Label: Merge
Length: LP
Media: CD
Format: Album
WorkNameSort: Post-War
Let’s get something straight here. These days it may be perfectly acceptable for Kris Kristofferson to sing on his own records and expect complimentary reviews and some satellite radio airplay, but in previous decades his songs became hits because better, more expressive singers such as Ray Price, Johnny Cash or, hell, just about anybody else sang them. Accomplished songwriters aren’t required to be accomplished singers. These latest songs from indie-respected M. Ward would sound a whole lot better being sung by someone else. Ward’s making a career out of homespun recordings that creak with intimacy: paint-drying tempos, whispered vocals, gently plucked guitars, Fender Rhodes keyboards playing lite-AM mid-’70s unfunk, all done sincerely with pretty melodies and without cheese. But taken over 12 tracks, there’s a bone-rattling monotony, a cloying over-emo’d drama that makes you want to break his reverb box and bring in someone who can sing something other than regret.

This article appears in Aug 23-29, 2006.