No one ever walked out of the Sistine Chapel praising Michelangelo for his "craftsmanship." Indeed, the surest sign of craft is its inconspicuousness. All art is artifice, yeah, but great art, even at its most self-referential, transcends mathematic precision to touch the soul. Over the first three Pernice Brothers albums, singer/songwriter Joe Pernice gathered quiet acclaim for his lush, orchestral guitar-pop-- and his supposedly immaculate, Brian Wilson-informed songcraft. On fourth studio outing, Discover a Lovelier You, the former Scud Mountain Boys bandleader listens too well to his supporters, manufacturing plenty of textbook "pretty melodies" that turn out to be pretty forgettable.
June release date notwithstanding, the Pernices' latest is not a summer record. Sure, Discover a Lovelier You offers more of the 1970s light-rock sheen of 2003's Fourth-of-July-fronted Yours, Mine & Ours. Here, though, Pernice borrows the cold distance of '80s Anglo-pop hinted at on earlier songs like "Sometimes I Remember", and follows the lead of fellow Smiths-enamored former alt-country troubadours Ryan Adams (circa 2003's EP-twofer-turned-LP Love Is Hell) and Josh Rouse (particularly on this year's Nashville). Then there's Pernice's usual cryptic melancholy. And, uh, all those lyrics about ice and snow.
Those lyrics: I could always see the "craft" in Pernice's genteel, Left Banke-inspired melodies, but when it comes to words he's typically received more praise than deserved, maybe because he's got an MFA (whoopedy-doo!). Pernice too often traffics in turgid phrases rather than complete thoughts, epitomized in the omg wtf chorus of "My So-Called Celibate Life": "It's a short slide down/ No caution navigating the faulted ground." That's not pop, dude. That's poor. The O. Henry affectations and Magnetic Fields synths of "Sell Your Hair" are clever and all, but every time you awkwardly rephrase clichés, I die a little. Hey kids, get this: "There's nothing quite as pretty as the one you can never hold"! And, uh, Joe, dig the mournful harmonica on "Saddest Quo", but what's "a head of tetra cyclic cattle"? Good thing the title track is instrumental, huh?
It's nice that Pernice and brethren like pretty melodies and glossy production. It's to their credit that they release their music on their own tiny label-- just like Black Flag! Jeez, Discover a Lovelier you isn't really even a bad album, only unremarkably OK. Form follows function, and art too reliant on form will inevitably be ephemeral.
