Reviews: Oh Captain My Captain and Pink Widower

[November 5th, 2008]

^Oh Captain My Captain, Recklessly she Split the Sea (Bladen Country Records)

[THEATER POP] Jesse Bettis doesn’t sing like most in this town. Instead of veiling his voice behind a sheet of noise or whispering through the quieter numbers, Bettis emotes every word like it might be his last—and it’s this balls-out gusto that informs Recklessly She Split the Sea, the first full-length from Whitman lovers Oh Captain My Captain.

The record sees Bettis and the band expanding on the Queen-meets-the-White Album thump of its self-titled EP to explore a more dynamic (and FM-ready) range of influences. Beginning with the brief interlude “Opening Credits,” Recklessly She Split the Sea is an epic, string-drenched slice of alt-rock. “All My Good Luck” opens with a buzzing, layered double guitar attack before reaching back to a beautiful, sparse mid-song bridge with nothing but thin guitar blurts alternating from left to right in the channel and Bettis’ heavenly voice. Closer “This Ships Gonna Sink” is one of many songs that bears a heavy Brit-rock jones; imagine Muse minus the prog-rock bombast. And while a few tracks are almost too theatrical (see the melodramatic “Don’t Be a Hero”), most of the record lets Bettis’ voice take the forefront. That’s a very good thing.

^Pink Widower, The Enchanted Realm of Pink Widower (North Pole Records)

[ECLECTIC POP] The best pop records are the ones where things are less than stable. From Harry Nilsson’s Nilsson Schmilsson to Wilco’s Summerteeth, singer-songwriters have long paired upbeat music with heavy lyrical content. It’s easier to digest heartache and disdain with a good melody.

It’s this juxtaposition between the infectious and the intimate that drives The Enchanted Realm of the Pink Widower. Led by songwriter Jed Allan (formerly of jangly rockers Six Foot Sloth), Pink Widower has released a debut record that’s an eclectic bunch of pop songs full of Allan’s wry, laconic voice and plenty of jaunty horns. “Motorcycle Mechanic,” with its ringing opening guitar strums and Allan’s plaintive vocals a few steps behind the mix, sounds like classic Kiwi rock (think the Clean or the Bats) while some of the more laid-back numbers recall, of all things, classic reggae.

“If you ever feel that life is just a joke/ or you’ve heard every note 1,000 times before/ just remember that we’ve all had days like that,” Allan sings on the closing “Shiny Lies.” As our autumn days grow shorter, it’s good to have a record that doesn’t try to hide what it really is: A solid collection of catchy—and sad—pop songs.