monoblogue music: “The Minstrel” by Nemo James

If I were to simply judge this record on the storytelling quality of its lyrics, this would be a winner. Nemo James weaves a number of pleasant tales as a good minstrel would in a 17-song epic which runs over an hour.

Alas, I have to judge on the package as a whole and musically this effort falls somewhat short. I suppose if you’re looking for pleasant, innocuous background music for listening to the stories Nemo weaves it’s a fair enough composition, but after a run of reviewing several good albums in a row this one didn’t seem to have what it takes. Every so often you would get a little bit of brass or some strings within a track but it seemed like they were added for effect rather than integrated into the whole. At this point it’s worth pointing out that James’s album notes only credit him as guitarist and drummer Chuck Sabo, with remaining instruments credited to James and “software.” That perhaps explains the very flat texture.

That description seems to be missing a little bit, though. Pride works reasonably well as a duet between James and a female vocalist, while I Wonder has a nice bluesy feel to it. I also liked the more upbeat feeling of Little Tin Box with its witty lyrics about the age-old problem of having more month than money.

But those highlights aren’t enough to save an album which has more than its share of annoyances. For example, I couldn’t tell whether the drummer or the production was at fault for the little clicking noises that plagued some of the songs.

At the end of Forbidden Fruit, James sings, “This song has no ending/It just goes on and on.” I hate to say it, considering Nemo did “The Minstrel” after an extended break from the music business, but somewhere around track 10 I was beginning to feel the same way. Aside from the lyrics, these songs don’t challenge the listener to find nuances or stray far from a comfort zone. Simple arrangements are one thing, but they still demand a good performance – how many groups have made it big on just a few chords?

I think James would have been better suited to release the strongest five of these as an EP to whet the appetite and work on providing more beef to the other twelve. In this era of .mp3 the old ideal of a 2 1/2 hour magnum opus like Guns n’ Roses did with “Use Your Illusion” (taking an example from my own CD collection) is outmoded like the Commodore 64. A lot of those songs are great, but out of 30 songs G ‘n R did there are a handful that shouldn’t have made the cut – so the case is here. But your thoughts may differ, so I encourage you to listen for yourself.