Search - John Wesley Harding :: Awake

The Fatherless Son Finds His Own Voice

Timothy P. Young | Rawlins, WY, USA | 02/20/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"John Wesley Harding suffered in his early career from comparisons to Elvis Costello and swipes from Dylanphiles for "stealing" his name from Dylan's classic album. Not for nothing did he sing on his first release "Bob Dylan is my father/Joan Baez is my mother/And I'm their bastard son." Happily, on Awake, JWH leaves behind the musical similarities to Costello (all he got from his "father" is his name) and finds his own voice.Awake finds him in true folk-pop mode, with generous references to 60's pop ("I Just Woke Up") and 70's glam ("Song I Wrote Myself In The Future"). At times it seems that JWH took a cue from Barenaked Ladies...with a heavier sense of irony and a more biting sense of humor. He covers disillusionment, both of himself and institutions ("Burn", "I'm Staying Here"), and perceived failure ("It's All My Fault") with equal aplomb, musically keeping the listener above ground and sometimes smiling while never sinking into the folk-pop mush that recently covered Shawn Colvin's fine songs on Whole New You.Through it all, Harding holds his songs and his voice up with clear irony and self-deprecating dignity ("Make sure it's me up on the funeral pyre/Make sure the house band's playing 'Light My Fire'", from "Burn"). Sure, there's a clunker or two (the ballad "Poor Heart"...not bad, but well below the standard we've come to expect), but all in all, this is a fine, serious album that has absolutely no business being fun, which it often is. The reissue contains a few bonus tracks, all of which are up to the standards of the rest of the record. Rest assured, these tracks aren't filler added on to make fans buy the album twice. Fine folk-pop, aided and abetted by members of Seattle's Young Fresh Fellows, among others. More than worth your time."