Pete Yorn

Pete Yorn (Vagrant)

By Amanda Stovall
Published: September 30th, 2010 | 1:00pm

I first fell in love with Pete Yorn’s smooth but rough-around-the-edges voice because of the elegantly ethereal quality to previous records, like Musicforthemorningafter’s (Columbia) “Just Another” and “On Your Side.” The newest self-titled album is, like all of his albums, a swift departure from ground he’s already covered, so there’s no ethereal beauty here. The songs feature a garage-rock sound with amplified guitars and Yorn’s signature subtle lo-fi vocals, creating the impression the album’s secretly an excellent live recording with minimal audience participation. The themes of the songs are also typical Yorn, covering feelings of disenchantment and disappointment. While raw capably describes the tracks on Pete Yorn, it also accurately describes biting lyrics such as “You want so bad to have meaning but you’re empty and draining” from “Paradise Cove I.” No sugarcoating the message there, nor are hard truths veiled in “The Chase” where Yorn sings, “I had dreamed a million times I fell in love but as soon as I get what I want I don’t care no more,” capping the song with a cried out “I don’t know what I want.”

Regardless of the dark undercurrent, the record doesn’t let itself be categorized as a bleak collection of misanthropic lyrics set to rock music. On the flip side of tracks like “Badman,” with its punchy opening guitar riff, cymbal smashes, and refrain of “I am a bad man,” are cuts like “Future Life,” which opens with frank lines about the fear of growing older and settling down before focusing on the importance of appreciating what one has: “Life’s been great to me / Oh it feels a little sad, gotta break out of here / Appreciate what I have / It’s easy to get stuck, it happens a lot / I can’t avoid anything, gotta take it all in / Take a battle stance, I know that I can win / This cliché of time, I know it must be true / And when what you want is what you have then you know you’ve found you.”

Album closer “Wheels” is slow and reminiscent of truck stop country blues rock with Yorn crooning, “We’re not afraid to die, so come on wheels take me home today / Come on wheels take this boy away / Now when I feel my time is almost up and destiny is in my right hand, I’ll turn to him who made my faith so strong / Come on wheels and make this boy a man.” The idea of growing from a boy to a man is perhaps a clue to the direction of Yorn’s next album, and considering how impressive this one is, I’m eager to see where the wheels of his songwriting continue to take him.

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Pete Yorn official Web site

Pete Yorn MySpace page

Vagrant Records