Jeff Merchant
City Makes No Sound
By Al Kaufman
Imagine crystalline water flowing down a rocky waterfall surrounded by lush greenery on a blue-skied summer's day. Pretty, isn't it? So is Jeff Merchant's music.
Merchant's sound is a mix of the Decemberists and Death Cab for Cutie after they've been listening to a lot of latter day Beatles. It's orchestral indie-pop. It's pretty. It's uplifting. It's beautifully layered and dense, without detracting from its simple elegance.
When he sings "I hope it all works out for you," on "Friend of Mine," it sounds sincere rather than trite. He's a sensitive guy without being so sensitive that you want to slap him upside the head; the exception being "Na-Na 99 Cent Store," in which walking into such a store becomes somewhat of a religious experience for him.
And he can also write a good melody. "Love Yourself Away," while rich with organs, guitars and background vocalist, has a great poppy, easy-beat feel to it. And there are other songs that are just as catchy.
The problem with this CD is it starts to peter out in the second half. For a CD that checks in with 15 songs, that's a lot of petering. It's still pretty, but it slowly becomes background-pretty rather than notice-me-pretty. Too bad, with a little more selective editing this could have been a great one.
