I’ve been had!

All these years, I thought Plumb was a band. That was how the press materials for their former albums portrayed them. My understanding was that lead singer Tiffany Arbuckle had been signed to do a solo gig, but that didn’t pan out so well, so instead an ad hoc band was formed in the studio, and her debut was released under the name of that band. More recently, I was informed by Plumb’s website that “Plumb is a girl who takes her band with her wherever she goes.” Um, OK. I guess that helps to explain the revolving-door membership of her backing band. And I suppose it shouldn’t affect the music so much if she’s been the primary songwriter. But man, I have to admit I was expecting a bit more from her latest album than this.

Beautiful Lumps of Coal. The title sounds like the inverse of candycoatedwaterdrops, doesn’t it? One was pretty on the outside and empty and flavorless on the inside. The other is ugly on the outside but lovely on the inside. A variation on the same theme, I suppose. More important than the semantics, I guess, would be the change of labels. After cutting two albums for Essential Records, Tiffany made the wise decision to jump ship (likely based on the label shifting their focus to more pop-oriented acts like True Vibe while jettisoning rock artists they were losing interest in, such as All Star United). She was later signed to Curb Records, and now, four years after candycoatedwaterdrops, we finally get to hear her latest batch of songs. A lot has changed for Tiffany in that time - she’s gotten married, and swapped her middle name for her last name, now being know as Tiffany Arbuckle Lee. As with most songwriters, you can expect such a major life change to affect the songwriting. And it definitely does. Beautiful Lumps of Coal, while touching on some of the same issues Plumb has become known for addressing, also includes some fairly convincing songs that deal with her new life as a Mrs.

So what’s my problem? I don’t know. It just isn’t the Plumb I was used to. On their first disc, Tiffany had an alternating ferocious and ironic persona, layering her haunting vocals over cool drum programming and dirty guitars to create a trip-hop inflected rock sound that was fairly unique among CCM bands. For their second outing, they maintained a little bit of that sound while branching out into a more easy-going pop style occasionally - a bit of a disappointment at times, but ultimately it made for a more consistently listenable album. I was cool with that as long as they hadn’t completely lost what made them Plumb. Apparently, though, those unique elements weren’t the things Tiffany held the most dear about her music, because this time out, she’s taken more of a standard pop/rock approach with very few left turns. That means that while some of the songs are excellent bona fide rockers, the album begins to sound a lot less interesting when it slows down. Her new band can tear it up when they want, but unfortunately that’s not enough to hold a candle to Tiffany’s previous work. So what we get is a mixed bag of songs about relationships with lyrics that range from cliché to moderately good - disappointing for the woman who penned or at least co-penned such intriguing tunes as “Sobering (Don’t Turn Around)” and “Drugstore jesus”. I would say that this album still has a few diamonds in the rough - but I think my problem is that there just isn’t enough rough. (That probably doesn’t come across as meaning what I want it to mean, but I’ll just pretend you understand and move on.)

Free
You thought you had me all tied up in a little knot
You thought I'd go on living just like you
‘Til you asked me nicely to stop…
The album opens on a promising enough note - synthesizers fade in slowly, along with a shimmering echo of Tiffany’s voice singing “Free…” mixed in, and before too long, drums and triumphant electric guitars come along and smack the song upside the head as if to say “What are you doing? This is a rock album!” While the verses play with an overused soft/loud dynamic, I think it works well for this song, since there’s a defiant air to it. Tiffany is addressing an ex-boyfriend here, or perhaps all the ex-boyfriends she’s ever had, basically stating that they thought they could mold her into what they wanted her to be, “But surprise… I’m FREE!“ You could almost say that it’s one of those “girl power” anthems, not too far from the territory Superchic[k] would cover, but a little thicker in the riffage department. It’s a great start to an album meant to chronicle the closing of an old chapter and the opening of a new one in Tiffany’s life.

Sink ‘N Swim
I was a tender reed, bent in the wind
And then the storm passed, and you helped me stand upright again…
A rather predictable semi-ballad shows up here… this one’s going to be old hat if you’ve heard “Stranded” from Plumb’s last project. It starts almost exactly the same way, with immediate vocals and a similar verse melody, and the song as a whole takes on a similar “water” metaphor as well. While “Stranded” was about estranged lovers who wanted each other back, though, this one’s about a lover who helped her to stand strong when she was weak, and also a song of devotion, promising him that they “we will sink and we will swim” - regardless of which one happens, they’re in it together. It’s fitting for a realistic love song - Tiffany acknowledges that trials will come when she sings during the punchy bridge that “It doesn’t rain for nothing”. The song’s a bit predictable overall, but it’s not drastically different from some of candycoatedwaterdrops‘ poppier moments.

Without You
I said some things to you I think that I shouldn’t have said
I spoke out of turn and hurt you
I've learned that it hurts me back…
It took me a while to really appreciate this song. Lyrically it’s kind of blah, not trying hard enough to go beyond WB-drama cliches as Tiffany laments hurting the person she has loved. I’ll give her credit for showing us a more sensitive and apologetic side of her personality, since her songs about guys have been rather defiant in the past as if it was more their fault than hers, but it’s hard not to be disappointed by a chorus that simply says, “What if you never came back? What would I do without you here?” What makes up fore this is the fact that the song rocks. Tiffany’s vocals make a great trade-off with the drums and the guitars during the chorus, each allowing the other room to pack a solid punch without getting in each other’s way. The breakdown and brief guitar solo during the bridge are nice, too. Nothing here that fans of female-fronted rock bands haven’t heard a million times before, but at least the packaging is nice.

Boys Don‘t Cry
So what would you say to me
If you could talk to me
You could ask anything
And I wouldn't lie…
If you were a fan of Plumb before this album, then you’ll know that abuse is a subject close to Tiffany’s heart. Whether it be the emotional abuse described in “Unforgivable”, or the physical/sexual abuse alluded to in the haunting “Damaged”, she’s shown a desire to reach out to hurting girls and let them know they’re not alone. This time around, though, she’s focusing on boys instead, and the abuse is more subtle. Using a programmed backdrop similar to “Damaged”, except a little less dark and eerie, she addresses a boy who is afraid to speak up for himself and admit his own insecurity, basically because he’s been taught that boys don’t show emotion. Tiffany pleads with this boy to get him to understand that it’s no way to live, and as if to encourage him to open up and let out whatever he’s feeling, the band kicks in mid-song, turning it from a gentle ballad into a mid-tempo rocker. “Don’t be afraid of me”, she tells him, knowing that if he can’t communicate with people, he won’t have much in the way of relationships. Good message. Pretty good attempt to sum it up in a song.

Hold Me
Hush, I can hear you breathing
Sweet, the taste of your tender kiss…
It’s funny - in the hands of a different band, the lyrics Tiffany wrote here could have spelled an awfully trite and mushy rock song. Instead, a throbbing bass line and driving guitars ensure that this little peek into Tiffany’s wedding night becomes the high point of the album, at least for me. It’s all very vague - after all, a woman’s first intimate encounter with her husband would be an awfully tricky thing to write about and still maintain some sense of class. But I don’t mind the vague lyrics even if they are somewhat cliché. It’s more about the emotion of it all than the physical encounter - just the freedom of finally being able to express themselves to each other in this way, the assurance of knowing that “I will be there when the morning comes”, the fulfillment of believing that “Tonight lives forever in my dreams”. I love that she did this one as a full-on rock song - making it a sensitive ballad just wouldn’t have captured the passion that she wanted to get across. I guess I’d say that the music communicates about half of what she’s trying to express here. There just aren’t enough love songs in the world that truly rock, you know?

Walk Away
It isn’t easy to look you in the face
‘Cause all you speak of is yourself…
Perhaps I’m coming off of the high provided by the previous song, but this one just doesn’t do it for me. It starts off rather unexcitingly with a dull guitar strum and a programmed beat (if you’re gonna use programming, at least make it interesting like you used to!), and while the verses set up an interesting indictment of someone she’s having trouble getting along with due to his arrogant attitude, the chorus is disappointingly nondescript: “You can go your own way, and I’ll go mine/You can take your chances, and I’ll take mine.” It probably deals with a controlling ex-boyfriend or something like that - I just get the feeling that it could have been a much more interesting song, given the apparent subject matter.

Taken
I can see the words dance across your lips
I'll remember forever, something more than this…
Now here’s something you don’t hear every day - Tiffany wrote this song for an ex-girlfriend of her husband’s. And it’s a nice song, not a mean one. Why would she do such a thing? Well, the actual song really has nothing to do with the previous relationship. Tiffany wrote a song for her because the girl was apparently killed - she drowned or something like that - and this was a way of eulogizing her. Tiffany thanks the girl in the liner notes and mentions that she is a “courageous woman of virtue”. It’s really too bad that the song itself doesn’t reveal anything about its heartbreaking back story. Instead it’s the generic “You were a great friend and we’ll miss you” sort of pop ballad. The rhymes are cliché, the music is fairly pedestrian, and while the chorus occasionally gets caught in my head, the song is still a big disappointment. It’s listenable and pretty enough, I guess, but not the show-stopper you’d expect from a song about a dearly departed friend.

Nice, Naïve & Beautiful
Cold is the throne of her hardened heart
No one has seen the softest part…
Another ballad follows here - this one stands out a little more at the beginning due to a child’s voice stating the song’s title, a weird, sitar-like instrument in the background (that doesn’t really show up once the song gets underway), and a moody piano melody. An interesting enough start, to be sure, but it doesn’t take long before it becomes rather clunky and overcooked. Tiffany’s sad story about a girl who gets taken advantage of due to having the titular qualities is admirable, but it also pales in comparison to songs where she’s portrayed something similar in the first person. It tries to be dramatic with the inclusion of strings, but the song’s main failure is just not having enough of a hook or an intriguing tune.

Unnoticed
Did you ever meet a man named Joe
Father to eight, giver to plenty more
He'd give you his very last dollar
When what he needed cost two…
Tiffany goes back into her “bitter” mode for the disc’s last rocker - but this time the bitterness is turned in on herself. She’s forced to examine her motives and her actions in comparison to some people she knows who are truly sacrificial - giving their all even when the people around them would assume they’ve got nothing left to give. Her words really sting when she arrives at the bridge - “Have you ever played the martyr only for the reason of a prize?” Definitely a convicting song. Too bad it’s buried in between a few mediocre tunes in the back half of the album. That probably means that the title will just about sum up the song.

Real
I numb the ache and decorate my emptiness
Stand naked in the light
Well, be pleased world, if this is what you wanted
This young girl is everything that you made…
Colorful synths, a happy melody, and overall poppy mood… come on Tiffany, I realize you might be going for irony, but I’m just not buying it. Countless songs have been written about the conundrum of being a celebrity and wanting to still be yourself, and I’m just not buying yours as a worthwhile addition to the canon. It’s good for an artist to state that her popularity shouldn’t be based on her physical image, but once again, she takes the easy way out and ends off the chorus with a line that just plain doesn’t dig deep enough: “I am desperately searching for something real”. I guess I don’t have much patience with songs that allude to a “something” or “someone” without filling in the blanks a little more at some point. That’s probably Plumb’s major weakness on the entire album - her songs aren’t specific about much of anything, so without knowing her personal backstory, most of ‘em wouldn’t be very meaningful at all.

Love ‘em & Kiss ‘em
This track makes for a cute interlude - it’s a recording her brother procured of the two of them as little kids. Tiffany, age 3, is talking about having her “first boyfriend”, and her mom is asking her what she’s gonna do when she gets married. It’s a nice segue into the album’s final song.

Go
You taught me so much
And you live in my eyes
I carry your blood inside…
The final track is an interesting coda, a request to be let go by someone who is perhaps having a tough time. The more personal tone is believable this time, since we know Tiffany is singing about her marriage and needing her parents to let her be a grownup and go her way. Hey, it’s a tough thing for most parents, so I can understand her need to encourage them that it’ll be alright. The music might try a little too hard to play on the emotions here - once again, it’s the predictable piano ballad with cinema-scale orchestration. That may have worked to ironic effect on “Late Great Planet Earth” and “Drugstore jesus”, but here it’s more of a hindrance than anything else. Still, Tiffany’s lyrics do manage to catch me on an emotional level from time to time. So it’s a decent ending to a decent record.

It’s too bad that Plumb didn’t aim a little higher with this release, it being their first album for a mainstream label and all. Beautiful Lumps of Coal comes across as a believable enough pop/rock album, even if it sheds the “band” persona that hade her past albums work so well for me. Female listeners and newlyweds will probably find a special connection with many of these songs. I think what would work best for Tiffany in the future is to learn how to paint better word pictures, so that we can appreciate the issues that the songs are dealing with and not necessarily have to know the back story to get it. I figure a song should be able to stand up as an intriguing and well written piece in a vacuum with no prior knowledge about the artist, since that’s the context in which potential new listeners are most likely going to hear the artist. Many of Tiffany’s past songs accomplished that, so I’m hoping she recovers from the typical pop/rock syndrome on the next album. Until then, I’ll enjoy the louder, more rocking songs and leave most of the rest of it.

ALBUM WORTH:
Free $2
Sink 'N Swim $1
Without You $1.50
Boys Don't Cry $1.50
Hold Me $2
Walk Away $0
Taken $1
Nice, Naïve & Beautiful $0
Unnoticed $1.50
Real $0
Love 'em & Kiss 'em $0
Go $1
TOTAL: $11.50

CONCLUSION: Definitely hunt for bargains if you're looking into buying this one.

Website: http://www.plumbinfo.com


Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Cleaning the House