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Chris Tsefalas
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I'm All Right?
In Music We Trust Records
Release: 5/04/2004
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Rated:
Review by:
Jason Warner
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Chris Tsefalas is a former welter-weight boxer. I read that
on the Internet. His voice is light and airy and the songs on
I'm All Right? are poppy, snappy, and
sugary-irresistible… if you like pop music that is. With the
piano on nearly every song and the airy soft voice there will
be comparisons to Elliott Smith. This could also be due to
the fact that both John Moen (Maroons, Steven Malkmus and
the Jicks) produced the record, Larry Crane (owner of
Jackpot! Studios) engineered the record, and both previously
worked with Smith. In an interview Tsefalas stated this
record is not just his, but Crane's and Moen's as well. While
I can see the Elliott Smith comparison to some degree,
Tsefalas is obviously in a better place emotionally. Even
though some of his lyrics that are quite dark may be
disguised by the poppiness, he is obviously not going to stab
himself in the chest with a huge knife anytime
soon.
Standout tracks are the opener, "I'm All Right It's Okay,"
with it's almost Apples in Stereo chorus and "I Don't Know
Why" with it's borderline ballad shuffle and ultra catchy
cascading piano line. Instrumentation is tight and works well
with the song arrangements, said by Tsefalas to have been
'flushed out' by Moen. Moen and Crane also played on the
record.
The biggest impression that I get from I'm All
Right? is it sounds like a Steven Malkmus and the
Jicks type pop album minus all the cheesy nonsense
Malkmus lyrics and the musical virtuosity/whimsical
spazziness. The Jicks-lite? No, not really, Tsefalas is
dealing with some dark issues here and many of the songs
have a very minor sound to them while retaining the pop
element throughout every second. Still, the downfall of this
album to me is that although the songs are well crafted,
performed, and recorded, it sounds too canned to me... too
much like a 'solo project,' which it is technically, and there's
nothing fundamentally wrong with that. But, in this case it
comes across like a record that was recorded track by track
just for the sake of recording an album. I didn't feel any of
that excited energy I feel when I listen to Pavement or
Fountains of Wayne. I think pop should make you want to
dance, and while you could dance to this pop, it would be a
slow dance and you might fall asleep on your feet. That's
not to say it's a bad album because I actually enjoyed it for
the most part. It just kind of sounded like a guy who had a
concept for an album and didn't fully realize the outcome he
was looking for. I would wager Tsefalas' next album would
be more polished, more of a vision realized and even better. |
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