{"id":18886,"date":"2020-06-11T05:30:07","date_gmt":"2020-06-11T09:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=18886"},"modified":"2020-06-11T07:28:03","modified_gmt":"2020-06-11T11:28:03","slug":"album-review-the-explorers-club-s-t","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2020\/06\/11\/album-review-the-explorers-club-s-t\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: The Explorers Club — s\/t"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"In my previous review I, um, explored To Sing and Be Born Again<\/i><\/a>, the new all-covers album from Jason Brewer\u2019s The Explorers Club. The group isn\u2019t exactly what one would call prolific, having maintained a consistent pace of a new album every four years since 2008\u2019s Freedom Wind<\/i>. But as 2020 has come around, the group returns with not one but two new albums.<\/p>\n

On one level, The Explorers Club<\/i> stands in stark contrast to its companion album; where To Sing and Be Born <\/i>Again<\/i> is all covers, this self-titled release is a collection of a dozen originals. But once one moves beyond that surface difference, it\u2019s clear that both are the product of a unified creative and aesthetic vision.<\/p>\n

To call The Explorers Club\u2019s body of original works an exercise in pastiche is to miss the point. True as it may be that Brewer\u2019s chosen style is completely immersed in a very specific kind of pop idiom, his music always<\/em>, somehow, manages to sound like The Explorers Club. He may enlist the aid of a different lineup of musicians \u2013 the shifting lineup that made the first two records, the Wondermints\/Brian Wilson orbit of talents that helped make Together<\/i> in 2016 \u2013 but in the end, the ineffable characteristics that are the hallmarks of his work are there for all to hear.<\/p>\n

If one were so inclined, a game of spot-the-specific influence could be played while listening to most any track on The Explorers Club<\/em>. \u201cRuby\u201d shows shades of the Turtles\u2019 \u201cElenore,\u201d for example. But these songs are less pastiches of other artists than they are Jason Brewer originals rendered in a style that evokes vivid memories of music one has heard before.<\/p>\n

And in fact, this new collection of songs sounds less like the Beach Boys than anything the group has done before. All of the arrangement and production values are there, but The Explorers Club<\/i> does not sound like a long-lost Smiley Smile<\/i>-era album from the Wilsons and their pals. For example, \u201cRuby\u201d features rhythm guitar and bass parts that evoke thoughts of Sgt. Pepper<\/em> more than anything else. And the vocal harmonies sound like Flo and Eddie backed by The Association (that\u2019s another way of telling you that they\u2019re amazing).<\/p>\n

One of the many remarkable things about records from The Explorers Club is that because of their strong connection with a particular kind of sound, they age well. Grand Hotel<\/em> was simultaneously timeless and out of its time in 2012; listening now, eight years later it maintains both those qualities in equal measure. One suspects the same will be true of The Explorers Club<\/i> in 2028.<\/p>\n

Brewer\u2019s production choices almost always employ \u201creal\u201d instruments: string sections are strings, trumpets are brass. And when synthesizers crop up, they sound like what they are. So even though The Explorers Club isn\u2019t really a group at all, its music is unfailingly real and organic in nature.<\/p>\n

The songwriting on The Explorers Club<\/i> places a high value on delivering memorable tunes. In the same way that Brian Wilson (to pick a not exactly random example) was at his best when collaborating with a supreme talent like Tony Asher or Van Dyke Parks, so too does Brewer benefit from his collaborative writing for The Explorers Club<\/i>. Los Angeles-based Emeen Zarookian is a kindred spirit; while his other work differs slightly from Brewer\u2019s style \u2013 I saw him live onstage fronting the band Spirit Kid in a tiny L.A. club a few years back \u2013 his musical sensibility meshes seamlessly with Brewer\u2019s. The pair is responsible for half of the new album\u2019s songs.<\/p>\n

And one of the most rocking tunes on the new record is a Brewer\/Zarookian cowrite: \u201cSay You Will\u201d has all of the winning appeal of a Three Dog Night single, capped off with a creamy vocal. And if the tune sounds like any other artist at all, perhaps it\u2019s Matthew Sweet. Like Sweet\u2019s best work, when The Explorers Club is firing on all cylinders, it\u2019s equal part concept and execution.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomewhere Else\u201d deserves special mention as well. Co-written with a team that includes Mike Williamson (a member of the Explorers Club when it was a performing outfit) is musically ambitious and high-energy. While parts of the song feel vaguely underwritten, the constant shift between two completely different time signatures and styles adds up to something quite memorable. And heavily distorted guitar \u2013 an ingredient rarely found on The Explorers Club\u2019s records \u2013 sneaks into the mix. The breathtaking song is easily the most hard-rocking thing Brewer has ever shared with the world. And following it with \u201cDreamin\u2019\u201d \u2013 a tune that, save for its lead vocal, could have fit nicely on a Cass Elliott solo LP \u2013 drives home the point that Jason Brewer can excel at pretty much anything to which he applies himself.<\/p>\n

Taken together, those two tracks effectively broaden the scope of The Explorers Club, in the way that Cinerama expanded the visual palette of film. Still, it\u2019s fair to wonder if The Explorers Club is likely to expand Brewer\u2019s base of fans. There\u2019s a niche market for his brand of pop, and \u2013 not to put too fine a point on it \u2013 we\u2019re getting older. But for anyone who luxuriates in flawlessly-crafted sounds that recall early \u201870s AM radio, The Explorers Club<\/i> hits the sweet spot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my previous review I, um, explored To Sing and Be Born Again, the new all-covers album from Jason Brewer\u2019s The Explorers Club. The group isn\u2019t exactly what one would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18887,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,51,65],"tags":[1103,2157],"class_list":["post-18886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-pop","category-review","tag-jason-brewer","tag-the-explorers-club","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18886"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18987,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18886\/revisions\/18987"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}