Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard wanders off again, but this time to put together One Fast Move Or I’m Gone with Son Volt’s Jay Farrar, based on the words of Beat Generation’s Jack Kerouac. “They danced down the streets like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I’ve been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn…” Kerouac’s works, particularly On The Road, the torch of bohemian hedonism, continues to inspire. Gibbard and Farrar take up the roles of transcontinental travelers borrowing from Kerouac’s letter. Thrown together on a whim; the album manages to parade easy to wash down twang swathed in acoustic guitars. The two take turns at the lead; Farrar’s smooth alt-country vox with its slightly deeper range is comfortably at home with this project. And Gibbard, now factotum to all music genres, still doles out his best with Postal Service’s Give Up which razes ground in comparison. There’s no doubt that the tracks of the album call for American landscapes rolling by and the occasional lonely harmonica. But it’s lacking the sense of mad urgency for adventure, and if it’s truly coined in the spirit of Kerouac’s Big Sur, the heed for California sunshine, the Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, the electric Kool Aid, if you catch my drift. All In One, it’s still a noble attempt to pay homage to a man who, “on the roof of America” yelled across the night.
Key Tracks: One Fast Move or I’m Gone, These Roads Don’t Move, Sea Engines
Moods: Cerebral, Passionate, Earnest, Searching, Plaintive, Intimate
Buy: One Fast Move Or I’m Gone
related
- Ben Gibbard & Jay Farrar Collaborate For Kerouac
- Our Lady Peace – Tonight @ Ottawa Bluesfest
- Our Lady Peace – Burn Burn
