Ok, time to knock out a relatively quick review that I've been putting off for a while.

A little over a year ago, I realized that follow-up albums were due by three artists whose previous works I liked quite a bit - Sixpence None the Richer, Switchfoot, and Nine Days. Those artists really don't have a whole lot in common with one another, but the titles of their upcoming albums had an eerily similarity. Divine Discontent. The Beautiful Letdown. So Happily Unsatisfied. I decided I'd snag them all as soon as I could, and review them as a trilogy of sorts.

So what happened that caused me to take over a year to get to the end of the trilogy? Well, it could be partially blamed on the delay of Switchfoot's album, but actually, it had a lot more to do with the fact that Nine Days' second major-label album never saw the light of day in music stores. Epic Records, their former label, apparently pulled the plug on the band after the record was completed, leaving the Internet as the only means of hearing the new songs. I suppose a slap on the hand and a sharp scolding of "Bad record label!" are in order here, but make no mistake, this isn't one of those supposedly-too-artsy-for-mainstream-consumption albums that will get oodles of listeners rallying behind it like folks did with Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (I wasn't too big on that album either, but at least I could appreciate the attempt at being different). While So Happily Unsatisfied follows the same guitar-based, dual singer/songwriter, relationship-themed, generic pop/rock template that worked for most of the Long Islanders' Epic debut, The Madding Crowd, I can't help but be left with the distinct feeling that the magic is gone this time around.

Perhaps my tastes have changed. I was all for a batch of radio-ready pop/rock songs with hooks that stuck like glue when I first got my hands on The Madding Crowd. That alone drove me to slap a five-star rating on the album, a choice which I now regret. It was fun, but it wasn't that great of an album. Looking back, what once thrilled my ears is now starting to annoy me. The band wrote some good songs, to be sure, (there was definitely more to them than "Absolutely (Story of a Girl)", the only Nine Days song most people will ever hear), but for the most part, what I once called "insanely catchy" has now become just plain annoying. The formula worked for a while and then it get old. Here, on the album that never was, the formula gets old even faster. The rhymes are more trite in several places, the musical arrangements are less interesting on most of the tracks, and the dual vocal attack of John Hampson and Brian Desveaux ends up being more grating than thrilling when one of them rips into a supposedly catchy chorus.

Anyway, it probably doesn't matter much now since you can't buy this album anywhere unless some smart-aleck is selling a demo/pre-release on Ebay or something. I'd recommend saving your money regardless. But, in the spirit of fairness, I'll take a brief trip through the album and point out what few high notes there are to be found.

Favorite Song
The better place you wished for
Is just outside your front door
Still it never seemed so far away...
It strikes me as weird that a band known for upbeat songs with catchy choruses would lead off an album with two more subtle, medium-paced songs. The first of these tries to have a pensive effect on the listener by opening with a tape loop of Brian Desveaux singing a snippet of the song's chorus, before the guitars come in and he starts to sing in a higher, grittier tone. "What if everything was wrong/And no one knew your favorite song?", he asks us. The song has a vaguely inspirational tone to it, which mirrors "So Far Away", the opener from their last album, but where that song fired on all cylinders, this one seems to burn out part way through. I don't mind the band opening with a mellower song, but since the average melody and trite rhymes end up hiding behind the guitar distortion and full-throated vocals, I don't see much here that the band hasn't done better before.

Good Friend
I used to wish that I was someone else
Then I'd dream away the day...
It comes as a bit of a shock that the album's lead single (or at least what was intended to be) is one of the most boring tracks on the disc. It leads off with a piano intro that you'd expect to lead into a soulful anthem of sorts, but the song ends up riding the mid-tempo fence, not being slow enough to be a heartfelt ballad, and not being upbeat enough to hook the listener in. John Hampson coasts his way through most of it. Singing about a friend (or lover, it's generic enough to work both ways) who is departing for some reason. He seems grateful for this person's presence, but the best thing he can come up with the sum it up is "Every good thing that I do is you." Not an impressive or touching line. I'm a bit baffled to find out that Jason Wade (lead singer of Lifehouse) supposedly contributed to this track in some way - I can't hear him anywhere. He may be playing guitar instead of singing, but whatever he's doing, it ain't standing out - but then, I could say the same for Nine Days on this song.

Emily
The wind blew waves that crashed upon the shore
Oh, we are forever more...
The rock factor finally kicks in here, with some decent riffing and an undeniably poppy melody... this one got me smiling temporarily. It's too bad that the music was wasted on describing a girl who needs a "knight in shining armor" and insinuating that the person singing the song wants his chance to be that man, though. It's cliché city. It's also hard to tell whether John is singing or screaming at points during this song. I like the strings that show up randomly in the middle of the song when the other instruments cut out temporarily... but, as is true with most of the album, it's a case of finding fun little moments in songs that are otherwise unremarkable - "Oh yeah, this is the song that does this during that one part." That's never a good sign, is it?

Marvelous
So how are you going to feel when you know it's so true
You'll think of me when you say 'I do'
Excuse my state of mind, did I spoil your valentine?
Good old Brian - you can always trust him for a bitter shot at an ex when one is needed. (I don't really need one now, thanks for asking, but it can still make for an entertaining song.) On the last album, one such shot literally was "Bitter", and here he takes a similar approach without dragging it out to epic length. He basically uses this faux-ballad to assure that old flame that she'll never be able to shake the memories they made together, and that she'll compare every other guy she's with to him and come up short each time. Alright, so it's as arrogant as "Bitter" was. Part of the charm comes from my ability to sympathize, because I had similarly deluded thoughts at one point in my life. Anyone who hasn't felt that way will probably just view it as mean, and sure, it's not as dastardly as "You Oughta Know" or anything (there are moments where he seems to admit that she was the best he'll ever get, too), but it gets the job done.

Still Here
Born with a heart defect, I am a father's son
One day I will be here, the next day I'll be gone...
John takes his turn at a relationship-on-the-rocks ballad, and comes up with another of the album's more generic tracks (which is saying a lot when the album is, on the whole, unremarkable). It's one of those cases where I can appreciate the sentiment - he's trying to communicate to someone who loves him very much that he has no plans of leaving despite the turbulence - but I'm really struggling to remind myself that there's a song here. It's one of those tracks that I can't seem to remember how it goes no matter how many times I listen to it. I seem to think that there's a semi-catchy guitar line that breaks in somewhere - but that moment could've happened in one of the many other ballads on this album and I'd be none the wiser.

The Joneses
Now even your corduroys are faded through
And when you're walking away, well, I think it's a better view...
At last, a song that really stands out! Um, except it's not a good thing this time. Remember the obnoxious urgency of "Absolutely", how it started off immediately with the chorus and then the band ripped into the song like it was the most fun thing they've ever done? This would be their best attempt to recreate that sort of a fun and slightly off-kilter radio hit. This time around it's based on the old adage about "Keeping up with the Joneses." The problem, aside from the generally annoying way in which John's voice bounces all over the place, is that this song contains some embarrassing lyrics and is frustratingly preachy. Sure, we all know that trying to keep pace with your materialistic neighbors is a superficial thing to do. It's all an excuse to take another potshot at a girl who appears to be ignoring him. The band seems to think they're clever when they impose a bit of self-censorship on the line "It's tough for sensitive guys in a world that don't give a f---", but that line just leaves me with mixed feelings, as if purposefully cutting off the word somehow made the line more intelligent. For the most part, it just sounds awkward, much like when the Barenaked Ladies cut off a word in their recent song "Unfinished". This all adds up to a song that should be loads of fun, but instead comes across as uncharacteristically weak.

Don't Look Back
How does it feel up there, breathing in the fine air
You can't look down, but you do not care...
Now that we're done with John serenading an all-important rich girl, we get to switch channels and find Brian serenading an all-important celebrity girl. (Oh, the variety!) I seem to recall that he wrote this one as a fictional account of an ordinary guy who falls in love with a popular (and very pretty) female singer - Mariah Carey seems to be ringing a bell. Anyway, it's not like the song is specific enough that you could tell - it's the generic cynical "Don't turn around to look me in the eye as you ignore me and walk away into your pampered celebrity world" type of lyric. Brian's vocals here are among the most grating I've ever heard from him. I know that he's got a good set of lungs and it helps him to sound all emotional and tortured while singing his extremely catchy choruses - but enough is enough, dude.

I Feel Fine
God, I think you're beautiful
You're stirring every chemical in me...
At this point, I was honestly shocked to stumble across a genuinely great song. This might be the only moment on the album where Nine Days shows some artistic growth - and by artistic growth, I mean playing ever so slightly with their generic chord structures and playing in a different time signature for once. A bouncy acoustic intro drives the kinetic, 6/8 rhythm, and while the typical electric distortion breaks in for the chorus, it actually makes a nice counterbalance to the acoustic on this song. Some semblance of a theme is finally coming into focus here as John describes being propositioned by the girl he's been wanting back for so long - suddenly he realizes he's happy without her, and by the end of the song, he's worked up the strength to say "no". Sure, she still knows how to dress hot and make him horny and whatnot, but he knows that they never had a whole lot going on on a deeper level, and this makes him quite happy to be without her, even if others would view that self-depravation as unsatisfying. Definitely the standout track of the album.

Ocean
Fading like a wilted flower, even in our finest hour
All the dreams you realize are sleeping here with me tonight...
Apparently the second time's the charm when it comes to the band's collaborations with Jason Wade. Basically, if you took this near six-minute power ballad and transposed its romantic lyrics with more of a spiritual bent, you'd get a Lifehouse tune in the vein of "Everything" or "Take Me Away". There's a special aura about the whole thing, from the "floating" guitar intro to the driving chorus to, yes, even Brian's edgy vocals. When the band is rocking out at full tilt rather than being overly poppy, those vocals seem to make more sense. The lyrics (which he and Jason seem to have collaborated on) are nothing new, really - basically a subtle sexual metaphor describing love as ocean waves crashing onto the shore of a woman's body. It's a heck of a lot more poetic than most of the CD, so the guys come off here as more genuine than cliché. It took a few listens to fully get into this one, but I can definitely say that this song and "I Feel Fine" constitute the high point of the album.

Beautiful
You're everything that the heart would sing
And now without you I'm just like a disease, slowly fading...
Yet another low-key entry in the faux-power-ballad category. Aside from the vague spiritual reference in this song's opening lyrics ("You're beautiful just like Mary's Son"), I'm not finding much to latch onto here, especially since that line is squandered by ending the next line with the homonym "sun". It's a boring lyrics about a pretty girl that John can't have, set to dull music, where the only respite is an out-of-place "doo-doo-doo" refrain in the middle of the song. It just seems cruel after those last two tracks, doesn't it?

Everything
I wont let you down, if I'm not around
And you will be free, and I will be myself...
While we couldn't possibly get any more generic title-wise, this song manages to salvage a little bit of my interest by being primarily acoustic, taking on more of a minor-key melodic structure, and flowing along nicely in 3/4 time. Pay attention to that, and you've got yourself a decent song. Pay attention to yet another unchallenging lyric about wanting to be "everything" to some lucky girl but instead apologizing to her for falling short, and you've got another recipe for boredom. The result, unfortunately, is somewhat average.

Great Divide
Maybe we can find a way to fall into each other's arms
And finally we can say nothing...
OK, so the band opened the record with a few slow songs and now they're going to end abruptly with a riff-laden rocker. I'm trying to appreciate the desire to challenge the usual "flow" that a commercial pop/rock album is supposed to have. The problem is, when the opener and closer aren't good songs, I don't really give a rip how fast or loud they are. The song just sounds like it was placed at the end for lack of fitting anywhere else, and a line in the chorus about being "Tired of making the same mistakes with the same old bulls--- lines" rings true in a rather unfortunate way for the band. This is certainly not an eloquent or interesting way to close out an album.

I guess I can't totally rip Nine Days apart for this CD, since it spawned two great songs that took them a step beyond what was found on their last disc. But the rest of it... yeesh. If I worked for their record label, I'd have advised them to think twice about whether this was really the best they could come up with for a follow-up. Ultimately, I think the authority on what should be on the album needs to fall to the artist, so by my logic this disc should have been released on time, as is, despite the fact that it likely would have bombed (due to the lack of a catchy single on the level of "Absolutely"). I guess Nine Days didn't let the shelving of this album get them down, since they apparently have a new disc out entitled Flying the Corporate Jet (Gee, wonder what that's all about?) that can be bought through their website. I'll keep an open mind and give it a listen if I can manage to be resourceful and hunt down most or all of the songs for review purposes before I buy it. I'm certainly glad I was able to do it this time around, even if I would never have actually gotten burned by buying it sight unseen, since buying it was never an option!

I'll give So Happily Unsatisfied a two star rating - that's 2.5 rounded down because I know they have no excuse for not doing better. I wanted to bump it up to three because of the two awesome songs in the back half, but I just can't bring myself to even call this album "average" on the whole, so there you go. I hope being an indie band helps Nine Days to develop as artists and leave the generic approach in their songwriting behind. Some bands go indie specifically to pursue such an artistic high road instead of being forced to crank out radio-ready pop tunes , but unfortunately I'm suspecting that in Nine Days' case, it's simply because their radio-ready pop tunes, for the most part, aren't good enough for radio. Sad, isn't it?

And so ends the trilogy. Now I can move on to reviewing more important (and un-ironically titled) albums.

ALBUM WORTH:
Favorite Song $.50
Good Friend $0
Emily $.50
Marvelous $1
Still Here -$.50
The Joneses $0
Don't Look Back -$.50
I Feel Fine $2
Ocean $1.50
Beautiful $0
Everything $.50
The Great Divide -$.50
TOTAL: $4.50

Band Members:
John Hampson: Vocals, guitars
Brian Desveaux: Vocals, guitars
Nick Dimichino: Bass
(I'm sure the band had a keyboardist and drummer at this point, but I've failed to find further info on the band lineup that recorded this album.)

Recommended: No