Dan Wilson reviewed

Dan Wilson
Free Life
(American)

In Dan Wilson, legendary producer Rick Rubin hears a songwriter for the ages — a natural talent in a business hung up on image and projection. I still hear the guy who made every night of my last two years in college end exactly the same: crooning “Closing Time.”

Appearing: November 20th at Park West in Chicago.

It seems odd Rubin, who provides a testimonial for Free Life‘s liners, would hitch his wagon to someone like Wilson. Rubin recently signed a no-holds-barred deal with Columbia Records to remold it in the fashion of John Hammond, who signed Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Bruce Springsteen, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. But Wilson, whose experience not only includes five years in Semisonic, but has also logged time in Trip Shakespeare and won a “Song Of The Year” Grammy for one of the six tracks he wrote or co-wrote for The Dixie Chicks’ Taking The Long Way Around. New blood he is not.

Nor does he have virtuoso prowess on either voice or instrument. What you get with Free Life is overwrought singer-songwriterisms, the kind that wind up during filler montages on TV dramas or backending romantic comedy soundtracks. Never is this more evident than the ballad drop of “Sugar,” where Sheryl Crow drops in to pour on the sap. The most painful thing about Free Life is its lack of instinct; its only conviction is to write risk-free songs. Never once does Wilson stick his neck out — let’s hope it’s not a metaphor for Rubin’s plush new gig.

4

— Steve Forstneger

Category: Spins, Weekly