Growing up is always a bitch, but maybe more so for a musician who grew up playing punk rock. There's still no right or easy way to mature-- do you stick with what works, playing the music that brought you all your fans, but never getting out from under those initial successes? Or do you slow down, stretch out, and risk sounding nothing like yourself, growing away from the sound that brought in your fans in the first place? This is a conundrum Jay Reatard's facing now, but it isn't the only one: After a successful run of singles on Matador that was compiled last year, Watch Me Fall is the first official full-length since being signed to the label. You can't blame the guy for feeling some pressure, and from the title to the lyrics and even its brooding cover, it's safe to say he might be.
That doesn't mean he hasn't risen to the challenge, however. Opening track and leadoff single "It Ain't Gonna Save Me" is ample proof that Jay Reatard can mature without the dull connotation the word carries, being as relentlessly catchy as it is careful in its arrangement. His seemingly tossed-off, self-hating lyrics may be even more potent over the irrepressibly cheery jangle of the track, especially in its brief, unexpected bridge. The track sets a tall bar for the record, but "Before I Was Caught" comes close, with more tortured lyrics and windmill guitar chords. However, Reatard's factory-like sewing together of hooks begins to overwhelm "Man of Steel", with an urgent ascending melody that leads to an uncertain breakdown that could belong to another song entirely. No doubt that Jay Reatard is a song machine, but some of the earlier album tracks sound assembled from parts lying around.
While the record peaks early, the rest of Watch Me Fall has a welcome diversity in melody and arrangements, and several late-album growers worth returning to-- the kind of thing that makes this an album, and not a singles compilation. "Faking It" gets plenty of mileage out of rapid, clean strumming and a fake British accent, then leads into a re-recorded version of "I'm Watching You", which made an appearance on last year's singles compilation, fleshing out its rough charm with warmer organ and putting Reatard's sweetened vocal up front. And he digs even deeper into New Zealand pop with the delirious "Wounded", cruising by entirely on acoustic guitars and the surprising flexibility of his voice: disarming falsetto, nasal demands, and impatient bark.
A lyric from "Rotten Mind" is where the album gets its title, and where Reatard sings paranoid fantasies in a near-whine in its verses, but is tempered by more of Reatard's falsetto and a rapid drum part that sounds like sneakers in a washing machine. The introversion of "Nothing Now" skirts indulgence through its buoyant Beatles-esque march before each verse returns. The last few tracks are the largest stretches for Reatard, leaving his screaming young self behind almost entirely: "My Reality" builds from more acoustic strumming, but has a sparse, echoing riff winding through it, and leads to a floating, disembodied chorus. "Hang Them All" ends on walls of harmony and a violin-laden outro in waltz time, while "There Is No Sun" has a gentle, natural flow, disturbed only by a hint of feedback in its final moments.
Watch Me Fall is neither a reinvention nor a holding pattern for Reatard-- walking the line between them is tricky, but he continues to make doing so look easy. From his many earlier, artier side projects, to his recent fascination with Kiwi pop, to impromptu covers of tracks like Deerhunter's "Fluorescent Gray", listeners are often discovering music along with Reatard, watching him learn and adapt as he goes-- he's in step with listeners rather than one step ahead, and that makes already wildly accessible tunes even more approachable. Self-exploration may carry a little more pressure with it for Jay Reatard these days, but that joy of discovery-- plus the tunes, of course-- is what will keep listeners tuning in, whether he's freaking out over success or getting ready to conquer the world.
