Like Madonna, Björk, and Beyoncé, Jaymay (aka Jamie Seerman) rocks just the one iconic name. And like logorrheic, New York-based folk-popsters Regina Spektor, Nellie McKay, and Casey Dienel, she sings winsome, quasi-confessional songs that the linguistically lazy probably tag "quirky", but that never get within spitting distance of "weird," let alone "challenging." You know, Sirius Coffee House playlist fodder and the gauze that NPR packs between All Things Considered segments. Jaymay even has an iPod-ad ready track in "You Are the Only One I Love", a sweet ramshackled sparkler of a song replete with singalong chorus and children's choir, lacking only the choreography. Do I really need to mention that Jaymay worked New York's open-mic circuit, developing an "underground" following, before a major label (EMI-owned Blue Note) came calling?
Right, then. Key marketing messages, RIYL shortcuts, and inevitable female singer-songwriter baggage unpacked and put away, let's talk about Autumn Fallin' on its own terms. As far as debut LPs go (Jaymay previously self-released an EP) it's not bad. It also isn't likely to sway anyone not already leaning in its subway-busking direction, either. A couple of relatively unadorned girl-with-guitar numbers, "Big Ben" and the title track, barely venture out of the beige range of their musical and emotional spectrums. And "Sea Green See Blue" and "Ill Willed Person" are the kind of pleasant, generic tunes you enjoy well enough as they play but forget as soon as the last note wafts out of the speaker. None of these, however, are as unfortunate as the cabaret-lite "Hard to Say", which finds Jaymay scatting trumpet sounds-- something no one whose name isn't Ella Fitzgerald should even think about trying.
That said, "You'd Rather Run", a hyper-verbose, 10-minute verse-piled-on-verse breakup song, with its waltzing Wurlitzer and descending keyboard crawls, is marvelous-- superbly arranged, psychologically nuanced, and wonderfully witty. Jaymay pays respectable homage to hero Bob Dylan (and god knows, greater musicians than she have failed there) with harmonica sputters and lacerating lyrics that bleed an ex dry with papercuts ("It's not that I hate you/ I never loved you enough to hate you,/ You moved to Montreal to be closer to France/ How's that working out?"). But with its emotionally ambivalent air of jaded rue, "Run" calls Leonard Cohen godfather as well.
Other album apogees include "Blue Skies", a diamond-chiseled orchestral pop gem of deceptively sunny sangfroid, and the breezy xylophone and shaker-salted album opener "Gray or Blue". But as good as these tracks are, ultimately, they don't recompense for Autumn Fallin's bland stretches. And unfortunately, Jaymay has yet to, uh, effectively communicate her competitive advantage in what has become an overcrowded market.
