No sooner did prolific Memphis-based musician Jay Reatard find a formula that struck a chord, than he scrapped it altogether. Watch Me Fall, the second solo LP from this garage-punk whiz, is a departure from the excellent Blood Visions (2006) which turned out to be one of those rare crossover records that could engage a large audience well outside of its supposed genre. Thankfully, this sophomore release — different though it may be — holds as much appeal.
RATING: 7/10
HIGHLIGHT TRACK: “Hang Them All”
SUBPAR TRACK: “Wounded”
Credit the songwriting: Jay has always had an easy way with a good hook, be it as a member of The Reatards, Angry Angles, Lost Sounds, or any of the other bands that he’s played with over the years. On Blood Visions, he squeezed 15 fully realized pop songs into 29 frenetic minutes, each one as catchy as the next. Watch Me Fall favours craft over speed, and the songs benefit from the newfound breathing room.
That’s not to say that Reatard has abandoned velocity altogether — album opener “It Ain’t Gonna Save Me” is hyperactive and pitchy as ever, sounding like a grittier version of The Dickies, and a few tracks later, “Can’t Do It Anymore” cribs from the same handbook. But the set is treated with a lighter touch throughout, and the new approach works well — especially in the re-recording of last year’s organ-laden stalker jam “I’m Watching You” and the bouncing, jangly paean to self-loathing, “Rotten Mind”. Likewise, “Hang Them All,” a paranoid murder fantasy, is as infectious an anthem as Reatard has yet produced. But even now that he’s chosen melody over menace — ostensibly the result of a well-documented Kiwi pop binge that had the songwriter feasting on a steady diet of The Verlaines and Tall Dwarfs — his voice hasn’t changed a bit. His well-honed sneer falls somewhere between a whine and a howl, and yet somehow never comes off as grating.
It’s a perfect counterpoint to the sunny melodies at play, especially since the songs mine familiar dark territory, rendering the Gargamel-meets-Creature From The Black Lagoon album art perfectly appropriate. Consider that the album’s first and last codas are “All is gone there is no hope” and “There is no sun for me,” respectively. Reatard is not a happy man, nor has he ever been — on record — but on Watch Me Fall, it at least sounds like he wants to be.
