The songs on former Memphians Reigning Sound's fourth album, a rarities comp called Home for Orphans, sound so familiar that you'd swear they're covers. Greg Cartwright has an ear for the hooks and hits from the mid-20th century, when rock, country, and r&b; were only just beginning to diverge, and his songs with the Reigning Sound have the authenticity of dusty 45s by long-forgotten artists, buried for decades in some lonely LP store or flea market. It helps that the band's recordings wear their lo-fi sound like period costume-- all tape hiss, tinny high-hat, and slightly reverbed vocals. To a certain extent, both Cartwright and his listeners share the knowledge that he's speaking a dead language, one that's out-of-step at a time when rock, country, and r&b; are largely compartmentalized and segregated.
These outmoded musical references only amplify the desperation and resignation in the songs. Cartwright writes and sings with the conviction of someone for whom the "sha la la la lee" chorus of "Pretty Girl" perfectly expresses his disappointments in life, love, and music. "It won't help you to keep pretending it'll be alright tomorrow," he sings on the doomed-love opener, "Find Me Now", his voice rising in mounting despair, "when you know it won't be alright tomorrow." On "What Could I Do?" he throws up his hands when another man creates a love triangle, and he lets his regrets simmer like roasting chestnuts on "If Christmas Can't Bring You Home".
A few tracks on Home for Orphans actually are covers. In addition to the steamrolling live cut of the Breakers' "Don't Send Me Flowers I Ain't Dead Yet" that closes the album, a few of these songs originally appeared on the Reigning Sound's previous album, the aptly titled Too Much Guitar!, which buried the lyrics and melodies under six feet of dirty, frustrated guitars and asked listeners to excavate them over repeated listens. Home for Orphans digs them out, dusts them off, slows them down, and puts the vocals back on top, and only a little of their original vitality is lost. "Medication Blues" sheds its frenzy but gains a more legible humor as Cartwright admits, "It's not that I don't want to work/ It's just that I don't want to fill out all the applications." And beneath the skuzzy fuzz, both "Love Is a Funny Thing" and "If You Can't Give Me Everything" reveal sadsack odes to impossible love that match the ache in Cartwright's voice, which remains one of the best in rock today.
In toning down the guitars and slowing down the tempos, the Reigning Sound have come full circle: Home for Orphans recalls the confident melodies and deceptively gentle sounds of their debut, Break Up Break Down, which was also released on Sympathy for the Record Industry. The band has stripped down its sound to the very basic elements: Cartwright's prickly guitar, the Stax-tight rhythm section of Greg Roberson and Jeremy Scott, and thrumming organ courtesy of Alex Greene, who returns as a full band member. This set-up is of course an age-old combination, but within these constraints, the Reigning Sound finds a little bit of freedom to make the old sound heartbreakingly new.
