The formidable MR. CRANE has just self-released his debut album GOOD OL’ DAYS, and boy does it deliver. Drawing on the meticulous production and choppy song-writing of titanic eclectics like Haroumi Hosono, Jeff Tweedy, and Kevin Barnes, Mr. Crane has distilled his influences into thirteen poignant tracks about teenage angst, finding love, losing it, and weathering life in Beantown. Lyrically it ruminates on fantasy, but also expresses a secretive intimacy with the world around him. Midway through “If You Can Relate” he calls out to a distant “digital ghost” in a dig about the impact of technology on his interpersonal relationships. The music has a welcomingly live quality to it, and as the project’s sole musician, engineer, and producer, Mr. Crane makes complex and colorful soundscapes look easy. In fact, one of the more unique qualities to the album is its multifaceted character of having the same voice take singular control over each musical phrase. His cubist music video for “The Woods” demonstrated the mechanics of his recording and dramatized vision, showcasing his facility on each instrument (as it corresponds to the stereo layout of the song).
Surprisingly, the tamer moments of the album are the most enchanting and heartfelt. Songs like “Unlit Sky” and “Outside” are bound to leave you a bit weepy – author’s liberty: I actually played some guitar for the latter track – with highly emotive piano work and quirky strums on his favorite acoustic.
Mr. (Parker) Crane’s own authentic take on a form of music I would tentatively characterize as “glo-fi” seamlessly marries funk riffs with garage rock and psychedelic pop. The style generally employs outdated analog and digital equipment such as reel-to-reel eight-track tape recorders, second-hand microphones, and DIY studio spaces, to create well-orchestrated recordings without the expense of top-shelf equipment and personnel. Probably its most renowned figurehead (one might even say, The Godfather of Glo-fi) is Ariel Pink, and I know Parker took a leaf out of his catalog of tape-recording techniques when piecing together Good Ol’ Days, which was recorded at Boca Studios in Somerville, which was more-or-less built from the ground up by Parker himself.
Considering so much of his life has been spent in Cambridge (attending Rindge and Latin School, and then Harvard College) his relationship with the city of Boston unsurprisingly surfaces throughout the record; but what’s more, he expresses notions of feeling perpetually lost or misplaced. For instance, in the song “James Randi” he stresses his own contrarian sense of aspiration through the refrain “I don’t wanna be a scientist, I wanna be James Randi”, asserting himself as a heretical misfit among collegiate know-it-alls. The phrase also speaks to the crux of his recording aesthetic: music is about spontaneity and a procession of artistic choices, whether predetermined or completely unplanned.
I’ll recommend any readers to check out the title track “Good Ol’ Days” which is easily the grooviest jangle-pop I’ve heard in a long while (and that’s including Mac Demarco’s latest release). The song is pure, unadulterated nostalgia. And finally, another personal favorite, “Spin” is an eccentric take on garage rock and reminiscent of weirdo manics like Nobunny.
This album is beautifully Mr. Crane. This album is scrupulously Mr. Crane. This album is singularly Mr. Crane.
You can listen and buy it at his bandcamp, and find more information about what projects he’s got in the pipeline at this Facebook page.
