Overcome By Happiness
Joe Pernice's former band, the Scud Mountain Boys, often dragged a kitchen table and chairs on-stage to replicate the homey feel of their spare and haunting music. Pernice's voice was lovely in that setting--his shy velvet voice floated over the stark horizon of the Scud's country-ish tunes. Here, though, he packs the stage with piano, cello, violin, tympanum, harp, trombone, and even a flugelhorn for a baroque wall of sound, and any hints of country are traded in for Bacharach. While the arrangements are beautiful, and Pernice continues to write amazing and evocative songs, his lovely wisp of a voice is hidden amid all the flowery flourishes. He used to sound lonely on the range, now he sounds lost in the forest.--Tod Nelson