monoblogue music: “Big World Abide: The Best of Eric Anders” by Eric Anders

Eric Anders - Big World AbidePerhaps it sounds pretentious for an artist to have a “best of” collection from just three full-length releases and two EPs, but this is the method Eric Anders, a singer-songwriter hailing from the Bay area of California, has chosen as a career bridge.

The playlist Anders chose his 12 tracks from spans from 2003 to 2011, as Eric did a succession of work from 2003-06 with his last previous release, “Remains In Me” coming out in 2011. “Remains” was the one EP represented in the collection, with a different version of a song called How Low And Why from Anders’ other EP, 2004’s “Songs For Wayward Days” also in this compilation. That variation, which reappeared on the 2006 full-length “Tethered To The Ground,” is a more complex take on the song; the version Anders chose to use is a more simple, adult contemporary style arrangement.

Taking the long-range view of his career, it’s noteworthy that Anders only included one song from 2003’s “Not At One.” Never Enough is one of the more acoustic-sounding songs on the CD, with a nice accompaniment from what sounds like a lone cello. As I noted above, Anders skipped selecting anything from the three-song EP “Songs for Wayward Days” but included three tracks from the 2005 album “More Regrets.”

You could see a progression from simple to more complex with these three songs, as Settlin’ Comes and Remembering On My Own maintain a more acoustic presence, but Icarus features a more haunting melody that seems to punctuate Anders’ later work more and more.

Considered by Anders to be the album he’s “most proud of,” “Tethered To The Ground” makes up half of the twelve-song collection. It’s a diverse blend of styles, with the interesting use of musical elements on Tethered To The Ground, which leads off this release, sliding into the accessible adult contemporary title track of this release, Big World Abide. The version of How Low And Why that Anders uses comes from this album as well.

It’s not the only song Anders tinkered with, though: his 2006 release had a great take on the Violent Femmes’ hit Blister In The Sun that Eric slows down and (with permission from the original songwriter, Gordon Gano) added lyrics to.

Yet even a “best of” collection has its weak links, and These People, while a heartfelt ballad, is one that could have been left off. Anders has a fairly pleasant voice which some have compared to James Taylor, but he doesn’t do as well singing at the high end of the register like he does with These People.

And you can’t talk about Anders without getting political. “Songs For Wayward Days” is described as “an anti-Bush political EP” and he takes that stance on Looking Forward To Your Fall, written in the midst of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and released on “Tethered.” It’s actually one of the more active, dramatic songs on the album with a staccato rhythm.

In that vein, the two songs selected from 2011’s “Remains In Me” EP come with different styles – the song Genocide and Justice is more of a ballad but features some great slide guitar work while Remains In Me is more of a country-rock tune – but both refer to the Wounded Knee massacre as well as the Jumping Bull Ranch incident which put Leonard Peltier in prison (some say unjustly.) It was almost as if Anders was satisfied enough with the overseas policy of the time – withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan – that he turned his attention to the classic mistreatment of Native Americans as a new theme to address.

Unlike many “best of” compilations which are kept in the order of release, Anders and Jeff Peters, who mixed much of Anders’ work and re-mastered this album, tried to approach this like a new album in making it more cohesive. Obviously one can tracklist in the order of release if desired, but I think it would have been interesting to put out the album in release order, too. But since this collection seems to be intended as a bridge to new upcoming work for Anders, it is a good look in the rear-view mirror. What you see (or hear, in this case) is probably what you will get when Anders’ next album comes out at some unspecified future time.

Knowing where he’s been allows us to see many different paths for the future of Eric Anders, but you can take the time to see his trail by listening for yourself. (It does autoplay, so the haunting opening riff of Tethered To The Ground is something you’ll hear straight away. It’s a good intro.) I’m going to be interested to see if he stays more in the adult contemporary vein or starts to veer off into more of a country sound.

And as someone who does a lot of political commentary, I’m curious to know how Eric is reacting to Clinton vs. Trump. (I suspect he’s more of a Jill Stein person, but as long as he puts out good music that’s an argument not worth having.) Maybe “best of” is pretentious, but it makes for a good overview.