Munk/Amelia reviewed
Munk Modest Among The Living (Waxboy)
Amelia A Long, Lovely List Of Repairs (Adrenaline)
After a high-speed collision with a drunk driver in 2003, Munk had to suppress the aftermath because his second album was arriving a month after the wreck. Amelia frontwoman Teisha Helgerson reportedly underwent cancer treatments. So Modest Among The Living and A Long, Lovely List Of Repairs could effectively be their “Through The Wire(s).”
Though you wouldn’t really know it from these 12- (13 if you include the reprise) and 14-track albums. Instead of tackling issues head-on (perhaps Munk did in two years spent podcasting), they approach near-fatal encounters indirectly, through a series of reflections in an unobtrusive modern rock tongue.
Because songwriter Munk shares his intentions behind each track in Modest‘s liners, he effectively submarines imagination in a set already needing some. Father/father-to-be songs are a tricky proposition, and “I See You” fails in sloppy manner typical of the subgenre. His breathy, just-woke-up croak feels contrived behind the plainspoken “I Am” and “Awake And Waiting,” and opener “Dirty Work” is a call-to-arms unmet by the rest of the disc. Munk’s sincerity leaves him open to attack from people who crave nuance or levity (his attempt, “Beautiful,” muffs it). That said, it’s hard not to appreciate his intentions; trying to do the right thing isn’t always the coolest option.
Amelia go about their business less ambiguously, filling Repairs with melancholic arrangements and Helgerson’s forlorn demeanor. The most upbeat entry, the hispanohablante “Enemigo,” nonetheless has its buoyancy overridden by a simple translation of its title: enemy. “Tragedy,” which comes closest to attacking the cancer with its punchy, junk-shop jazz, nevertheless clouds metaphors that could be mistaken for a lover’s frustrations. Helgerson, Scott Weddle, and Jesse Emerson apparently have mastered creaky, despondent chamber pop the likes of which could accompany Eleni Mandell or Emma Pollack. Yet even in less than 40 minutes, Repairs seems content to kick a can down the sidewalk with its hands in its pockets.
Arguably it could be worse to exploit personal tragedies in song, but less so if it came at the expense of something more worthwhile.
A Long, Lovely List Of Repairs: 6
— Steve Forstneger
