John Wesley Harding Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead

[Popover/The Rebel Group; 2009]

Rating: 2/5

Styles: dad-rock, power pop
Others: Robyn Hitchcock, Elvis Costello, Fountains of Wayne

Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead. If the only options were change or death, the odds probably wouldn't be in favor of anyone named John Wesley Harding. It isn't as if taking your stage name from a Dylan song is itself a creative death sentence. That isn't to mention the fact that Harding sounds nothing like the founder of his name. Dylan himself has been around so long that the cultural acceptability of his imitators seems cyclical. John Wesley Harding, née Wesley Stace, hasn't been around quite as long as Dylan, but his career has also had its fair share of longevity and reinvention; so age isn't a clear demerit either. If not for reasons of obvious inspiration, nor those of age, why then is Who Was Changed And Who Was Dead such a lackluster collection of power pop?

One has a feeling that Harding considers his wit to be more acerbic than it is in actuality. The musical accompaniment, courtesy of his more-famous friends in The Minus 5, is solid, workmanlike. Unfortunately, the vocals are placed front and center, and Harding's inflection puts added emphasis on embarrassing lyrics like "Is it the X-Files or the Kung-Fu/ Have you got a guru/ Who'll show you what your money's really worth?" Edgy, let alone contemporary, this isn't. Harding has a fine voice for middle-aged rock ‘n’ roll, falling somewhere between late-period Elvis Costello and the current Yusuf Islam, but with lyrics as obvious as those contained in this collection, it's hard to simply hear him sing. The template here is more AOR-ish, Fountains of Wayne B-sides, than it is the bilious swagger of Costello. No amount of jangly guitars (thanks, Peter Buck!) or harmonies (thanks, Kelly Hogan!) can hide the staleness of songs that are so obviously past their sell-by date.

Despite the frequent distractions/detractions, there is some palatable pop sweetness on Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead. "The End" and "Sick Organism" are propulsive, short, no-frills stompers. "My Favorite Angel," ignoring the banal subject matter, has a reliable, pleasing chug to it. That song, however, highlights the record's second great failing: all too often, these songs settle into a groove, only to have that groove disrupted by trite, Beatles-esque pomp. The album closes out with a pseudo-psychedelic freak-out that hasn't been freaky since the early ’70s. No amount of guitar noodling, saxophones, or flugelhorns can compensate for a lack of — well, not inspiration, but passion.

The only change here is akin to that between two musky t-shirts, equally worn; I'm afraid that with the title he's chosen, John Wesley Harding has settled his own ill fortunes.

1. My Favourite Angel
2. Love or Nothing
3. Oh! Pandora
4. A Very Sorry Saint
5. Sleepy People
6. Top of the Bottom
7. Daylight Ghosts
8. The End
9. Sick Organism
10. Congratulations (on your Hallucinations)
11. Someday Son
12. Your Mind's Playing Tricks On You
13. Wild Boy

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