Call me crazy, but I'm fairly certain that this album title's two constituent parts are mutually exclusive. In my own experience anyway, love-- even relatively simple love-- always complicates things. Easy living really requires a lack of commitments, not to mention a lack of consequences for taking it easy all the time (i.e. no asking why the garbage didn't go out or why the phone remained silent even as the clock ticked past 1:00 am). Being in love isn't bad, of course, it's just not easy. But then again, I guess Love or Easy Living doesn't quite have the same ring to it.
Central Falls turn the Easy Living half of the title into an outright Gershwin reference just as the record kicks off. The clean, wispy guitars take a quick pass at the opening progression and melody to old George's classic "Summertime" before wandering off into the haze where they spend the rest of the album. The song is even called "Springtime"-- get it? Of course you do, but don't expect any more music dork humor ahead, because the Chicago boys in Central Falls play it pretty straight from there on out-- Love and Easy Living's overarching vibe is one of a sad, sultry summer, and its tone keeps making me slip and call it Love and Easy Listening.
The two major players in this whole Central Falls conspiracy are brothers Ben and Adam Vida, who all good scenesters know from their respective other bands, Town & Country and U.S. Maple. A word of caution: don't go looking for any traces of U.S. Maple in Central Falls, because there aren't any-- Adam Vida spends his time behind the kit in U.S. Maple banging out anti-rhythms while his mates explode and melt around him, offering answers to the question "what happens when rock collapses?" Here, he hands the sticks over to Jason Adasiewicz, a skilled skinsman who's made the rounds in the Windy City post-rock scene, and who sticks rather politely to steadfast, simple rhythm and the occasional Nick Mason fill.
Adasiewicz is mixed too low on "Springtime"-- so low, in fact, that you can't hear him until you turn it up quite loud, which is a problem, because the meditative guitar parts need his guiding push in order to sound like anything other than soup. When you boost the volume though, the song's lilt and bounce work pretty nicely-- the larynx of a Vida is typically given to a smooth tenor croon that blends nicely with a crisp electric guitar and a Hammond-- and the brothers harmonize well, though they don't exactly bring to mind anyone named Wilson.
As is frequently the case with albums that have more to offer in texture than melody, though, things bleed together like watercolors, and longer songs like "The Fights Are Staged" are inevitably marooned in the "Is this still the same song?" maze that so many albums get lost in. Still, "Weekenders" rises above with a fine horn arrangement and a rather affecting refrain of "Weekenders, you fuck off/ I am here forever," which could be an anthemic sentiment for any number of folks, from resort town natives to kids manning registers on a Saturday evening.
If nothing else, Central Falls have improved appreciably on their even more diffuse debut, and crafted a fine album for folks whose seasonal affective disorders kick in halfway through July (perhaps Red Sox and Cubs fans?). There's more dynamic tension here, exemplified in the shifting rhythms and jazzbo guitar of "Covered Below" and the toothy horn part to "Morning Sky". Really, tighter melodies are all Central Falls need to put a record in your face, instead of on the periphery, but as wallpaper goes, Love and Easy Living is good stuff, well mounted.
