Michael Zapruder’s Rain Of Frogs Review
Michael Zapruder’s Rain Of Frogs
New Ways Of Letting Go
(Howells Transmitter)
It’s imaginable with a last name like Zapruder, you’re expected, as an artist, to document some pretty major occurences. It’s the same name gracing the infamous “Zapruder Film,” which unwittingly captured the sideview of President Kennedy’s assassination.
Michael Zapruder is much more concerned with matters deep within, though the early portions of New Ways Of Letting Go are cinematic as perhaps an indie pop version of The Twilight Singers’ swagger. The jazzy sway of “Haymaker Riot” and brushed drums on “Butterfield’s And Baker’s'” latenight strut offer a rival sexuality and ribaldry many chamber singer-songwriters forget. It’s quizzical, however, when New Ways turns into a Pernice Brothers album, and substitutes featherweight harmonies and listless strumming where there was once a hint of danger or, at the very least, untrustworthiness. Zapruder is a far better Zapruder than a George Harrison, yet it’s the latter muse he chases on the second half of the album — to no avail.
— Steve Forstneger
Click here to download “Haymaker Riot.”
