Delusions of Adequacy by George

Tuesday, December 16th, 2003

Excerpt: Andy Wagner... knows how to set a mood and carry it through.... it seems as though he knows exactly what he's after in terms of sounds and production, and that kind of confidence is what makes a good debut work.

Andy Wagner
Horse Year
Tenseforms

File Under: Alt-country
RIYL: Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Jay Farrar, David Olney

Sure Andy Wagner can be more than a little sulky on Horse Year, his eight-song debut release, but he knows how to set a mood and carry it through. Wagner mixes a lonesome, high-plains western sound with inward-gazing moping in a familiar pattern. His voice is at turns rusty and reedy, and he plays most of the instruments on the album, primarily a mix of acoustic and electric guitars, to create a dusty, hazy atmosphere (Mark Benson of Lying in States adds some drums).

“Weak in the Knees” begins the album strongly, at once tough and gentle in tone. It’s the kind of song that earns the cliché “edgy.” Like Elliott Smith, Wagner likes to write waltzes with stiff, heavy percussion to create a martial feeling. There’s something naked and raw about that sound that makes it ideal for a little emotional melodrama, at which Wagner excels, and he repeats variations on it on the next track, “Nothing to Defend,” and later on the album.

High drama carries this record, and Wagner is most successful with it on songs like “Something’s Watching,” with its minor chords and whistling undertone of accordion. “What You Used to Be” is another moody piece, carried along by heavily muted and distorted lead electric guitar, Daniel Lanois-style, with a lyric that bemoans a lover lost to another man.

After that, though, Wagner seems to run out of gas. “Two Minutes” is a lazily paced instrumental interlude. And by the last couple of songs—“When I Leave” and “One Key”—Wagner has lost most of his momentum as moodiness finally overcomes melody. Those two plod along in a way that if I were in a more charitable mood I might compare to Leonard Cohen, but these don’t have the lyrical interest that helps to keep Cohen’s songs engaging. However, the wind chimes that hauntingly enter in at the end of “One Key” really are a nice, original touch, especially as they are the last sounds you hear on the album.

Andy Wagner has hammered out a pretty well defined place for himself in the world of contemporary singer-songwriter music. At least it seems as though he knows exactly what he’s after in terms of sounds and production, and that kind of confidence is what makes a good debut work.

More Information…