plorentz's Full Review: Milk the Bee. [Digipak] by The Break and Repair Me...
We always underestimate the drummers, don't we? We expect the lead singers to "outgrow" their bands, to want to go solo at some point (usually the peak of a band's popularity), to, y'know, spread their wings and stuff. Lead singers seem to need that kind of spotlight eventually. But drummers: not so much. In fact, the drummers need the band. So we think. Never mind about Ringo, or Don Henley, or Dave Grohl. And while we're underestimating stuff, it's also perfectly natural to underestimate a band like Matchbox Twenty - color me guilty - what, with all their overplayed, mainstream pop/rock singles. They can't really be that great of a band if they've got a bunch of songs that are super popular, right? (There's some logic for ya!)
Well, the fall 2007 release of Matchbox Twenty's hits collection Exile on Mainstream, heralded by what might just be the best single they ever released (the frantically catchy "How Far We've Come"), gave me an opportunity to confess the error of my thinking in the band's regards. Now, enter Matchbox Twenty drummer Paul Doucette, who, last summer, released his debut solo album - credited to The Break and Repair Method - inscrutably titled Milk the Bee. Ridiculous title aside, however, Milk the Bee proves to be a credible, listenable, and often charming collection of piano-driven Wilco-lite alterna-pop - Doucette even has a sort of Jeff Tweedy rasp to his voice that helps rough up the edges of songs like the fiercely rocking "You Won't Be Able to Be Sad", the lilting waltz-time “Forget About the Brightside” and dirgey closer “The Most Somebody Can Know” that might otherwise have been easily mistaken for leftovers from Keane's Hopes and Fears.
Though Doucette co-produced (with Greg Collins) and plays most of the instruments on the album himself – he’s credited not only with drums, but guitar, bass, and piano – he opts away from the insular one-man band approach, and has assembled a super-cool posse of friends and associates to back him up – folks like his wife Moon Zappa, his Matchbox Twenty bandmate Matt Beck, and friends like former Veruca Salt songstress Nina Gordon, singer-songwriter Tracy Bonham, and Roger Manning (formerly of Jellyfish, a reliable sonic “color commentator” on Moog and other assorted keyboards – see especially the Beatlesque pop-star bashing “Life Gets Beautiful”).
The result is a record that radiates with familial warmth and wounded beauty – a collection of songs that feel as affectionately crafted as model cars a guy might devote all his alone time to building in his basement, and, as with the album-opening “This City (Is Bound To Do Us In)”, just as lovably fragile. If he were a twenty-something woman – think Sara Bareilles – singing the dramatic piano power ballad (again in a stately waltz time) “Your Numbered Days”, he would have, like, four zillion highly devoted Facebook friends by now. There’s scarcely a hint of Doucette’s day job to be found here, as these songs’ points of reference seem to skew towards vintage Brit-pop (“I’m At a Low” sounds like The Smiths), the brooding classicism of Aimee Mann (see “Won’t Get Worse”), and a jones for Jon Brion-style atmospherics.
In fact, the album’s primary fault – and far from a dealbreaker – is that it relies so heavily and self-consciously on Doucette’s outside influences to establish an identity apart from Matchbox Twenty that it fails to establish an identity apart from those influences. It’s an easy flaw to overlook when the songs are as beautiful as these are, and when Doucette really lets loose on the lead single “You Won’t Be Able To Be Sad”, it almost makes you wonder what he ever saw in that other band he’s in. Here’s hoping The Break and Repair Method is more than just Paul Doucette’s secret hobby.
- - - - - BECAUSE YOU NEED TO KNOW:
“Milk the Bee” by The Break and Repair Method BluHammock Music Released 2008
Produced by Paul Doucette & Greg Collins 42 min.
SONGS: This City (Is Bound To Do Us In) – You Won’t Be Able To Be Sad – Forget About the Brightside – Now We Become Part of It – Calling All Electrical Plans – Life Gets Beautiful – I’m At a Low – Your Numbered Days – Won’t Get Worse – The Most Somebody Can Know
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