Style: pop rock, experimental, outsider
Label: self-released
Year: 2021
Home: Portland, Maine
Members:Ashley Lenartson ~ vocals
Kyle Tupper ~ drums/piano
Gustavo Martins ~ guitars
Cam Wakabayashi ~ drums/bass/piano/guitars
William Clay ~ drums/guitars/piano
Rick Sims ~ drums/guitar/vocals/piano
Ashley "Maverick" Lenartson is a comedy book author, holistic healer & graphic artist. Over a decade ago he had some of his lyrics recorded, or demoed depending on one's view, by some anonymous session players. The musicians crafted all the parts to fit a variety of popular musical styles with no input from Maverick, other than his money. With more lyrics to record, Maverick has spent the last few years creating the much delayed follow-up. This time he's using a more hands-on approach. He's doing all the singing & hired Fivver musicians to compose the music & record all the instruments. He's still hands off of the composition process, but puts all the pieces together. He started this project with no real musical knowledge, including both theory & music production. Having heard his earlier recordings, what is this new album like? Not what I imagined, or more properly, not what I've heard from others who have climbed the DIY mountain. One always hears music as it relates to other music, as the mind automatically makes associations. Maverick labels his album as 'pop music', so the mind obviously starts thinking of other pop music. Yet, this is not like any pop music on the charts now, nor any I'm familiar with in the past, nor does it seem to have any of the traits of standard pop music which I'm familiar with as a music author & bassist. I can't see it appealing to pop fans, nor can I recommend it to those wanting radio-friendly pop music. It doesn't feel like pop music, which often has a slick polish & lyrical content that pulls at your heart, or at least a memorable hook. None of these songs have a hook, are polished & most are full of vapid lyrical cliches. You also can't dance to any of the songs, as the instruments & vocals across the album are routinely out of sync. I've been complimented for my ability to keep beat without a percussion instrument & thus tried finding the beat on a couple songs. After a few bars I always lost it & could rarely find it again. Is this secretly a satire album by Frank Zappa or a lost John Cage rock album? That would be cool if it was either of those things. Not to mention the instruments often sit uncomfortably against each other not on the same musical page, like they were recorded separately with the musicians not knowing what anyone else was doing. This leaves one with a jarring effect, far from the comfortable lull of pop music. The instrumentation needs complete re-working to be pop music according to any definition I offer one to submit, or even to be compared to any pop group out there, outside of some 60's drugged out bands showing up on Dr. Demento. Its also not straight ahead rock, though there is some rock elements in the instrumentation. "Pop Sensibility" reminded me of the Monkees, while others songs are trying for something that is AOR meets early R.E.M. with only 3 droning chords. Moving beyond rock, there's hints of some avant-garde jazz flavoring, but I think that's more accidental than deliberate. I'll come back to that aspect. "Rock'n'Roll Cowgirl" has some very weak country vibrato guitar, but a bit of guitar doesn't create a country song, so I'm not sure what this trying to be. This album does not know know what it wants to be. Most of the songs sound like they were recorded with different artists, with Mavericks' vocals & lyrics as the only steady entity, & the fact he sings everything at the same tempo regardless of the music. This actually sounds like a compilation of multiple bands with the same singer. This is often what happens when a musician lets others do the composing & doesn't have an overall vision. One is stuck with what is handed in, & sadly Maverick doesn't seem to have the production skills to put everything together to find some semblance of pop music or some sort of recognizable music. After looking at the variables & still confused as to what is going on here, I'm forced recommend this album to those who are fans of Dr. Demento & those that like "outsider music." If you like the zaniest outsider music out there, than this is absolutely your thing. For everyone else, I figure they will be like me & just not know what to do with with this album. Honestly, at one point I thought I should listen to it as an experimental thing in the Krautrock-esque vein. This is in regards to my earlier jazz flavoring comment. While taking notes on the album, as I do for everything I review, I thought I'd attempt a legit description of the album's overall feeling. Something more detailed than critical. I came up with the vocals of Can's Damo Suzuki meets the music of Henry Cow, both Krautrock bands, aiming for the radio-friendly pop sound of Talk Talk. Makin' Tracks Pt 1 Grtst Hits has the droning unemotional vocals & slightly out of sync playing of Can, the odd conflicting sounds of Henry Cow that hints at jazz improv, while trying for the less commercial side of pop group Talk Talk. There is a difference between this & Krautrock, so I know its not a Krautrock jazz wannabe. Those musicians knew music theory, played professionally jazz, folk, rock & were looking to do something different. They weren't noise makers, though it may seem that way, but trained musicians wanting to break the mold. I don't feel that this is an improvised album, but simply pieces from different musicians that don't really work together & should be spliced up & re-worked. There is some noodling by some musicians that feels a bit improvised, but its the minority. Add the fact that the mix is all over the place, with vocals being too low in the mix & sounding like they were recorded over the phone being completely lost under rhythm instruments being too loud. Speaking of vocals, they include breathing sounds, pausing in odd places to take an obvious breath, & totally ignore the beat & melody of the music. If only he spoke the songs I could call this Beatnik poetry, sorta, with cliched bad poetry. I truly believe Maverick is seriously trying for legit pop music, not to create his own flavor of outsider music, but doesn't understand music structure or production values. He should work on some music privately before releasing what is really his classroom to the world. Take some classes, & study theory, production, styles of music, songwriting & singing. If nothing else, compose his own music, even if he needs others to play the instruments. Many musicians compose for instruments they can't play. Captain Beefheart wrote all his music by humming into a recording device which the drummer than turned into legit musical pieces, chords, etc. Actually, if this was Beefheart things might go better. I would be more complimentary. I might write something like this: "Years Go By" is about the memory of love told through a dominating piano line, frantic drumming, a strange rock solo & orchestra all smashed together trying to sound like numerous songs at once. The result imitates the barrage of memories where there's ton of thoughts coming through at once. All that being said, you can download the album on his website. Do that & tell me how you'd describe the album in the comments.
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