Howie Beck reviewed
Howie Beck
Howie Beck
(Ever)
Canadian singer-songwriter Howie Beck knows his gentle place, and does he exploit it.
With friends and tourmates including Josh Rouse, Nada Surf, Ed Harcourt, and Jason Collett, the only other names to drop concerning his third solo album are Joe Pernice and the less-suicidal side of (surprise!) Elliott Smith. Burying Beck in his influences, however, pulls the wool over some gentle, crisp nuggets a less economic craftsman would smother with heavy hands. The major difference between him and his compatriots is his reticence to pull out the stops. Beck’s voice on “I Need Light” stands to sully some syllables or rise half an octave, yet it remains a whisper. The light adornment of a Leslie cabinet on “The Books Beside Her Bed” is Beck splurging on his recording budget where Pernice or Harcourt would have interwoven a string section in a flurry of horsehair particles. “You covered it up/with your own ego,” he utters; it’s not an inner dialog.
— Steve Forstneger
