Seth Swirsky is a well-established songwriter who is famous for having tried to sue Mariah Carey for plagiarism. As I write, the case goes on. The Carey song "Thank God I Found You" is not a piece of work that many people would want to claim as their own, being fairly standard million-dollar-swilling tripe.
This CD on the other hand has some qualities. The half hour running time brings eleven slightly quirky vignettes of spoilt Californian life. SVU's, instant gratification, Starbucks, goofy un-seriousness, supreme self assurance, imaginary eccentrics and good teeth can all be taken as read. But the apparent sincerity is shaken a little by knowledge of that lawsuit and by a visit to the shockingly self absorbed website (www.seth.com).
I'm clearly hesitating here. Pop music is not just for the people. In some way at least it has to be by the people, doesn’t it? Seth was working as an in-house writer for Chappel Publishing 20 something years ago, and is married to a music publisher with a couple of children. He's a talented industry insider who also stretches to baseball book credits and a passion for painting. I'm guessing that he's not short of this months rent money.
The songs are smooth and cleverish. The lyrics are slightly Malkmus, slightly Kweller, slightly (very slightly) Lennon. "You don’t need a pager to greet your neighbour" is typical of his smart arse hollowness. It is hard to hear anything that is fiercely and truly Swirsky. Having faked it for others for so many years, does he really have a voice that anyone really wants to hear? I'm just not sure.
The general approach emulates a confiding voice with a hint of acoustic guitar cool. The spaces that would be left by such sparseness have been luxuriously packed with serious pro musicians and expert production efforts by drummer and multi-instrumentalist Dorian Crozier. It’s very smooth. And it does have lots of clever little touches: like the Tom Petty guitar sound on "It's Still Love" (the most complete pop song on the album), the Indian inflected violin at the end of "Bike Trip", the backwards swooshing introduction to "Herman Cherry", or the light flurries of electronic tinsel on piano cum light rock song "Butterfly On Jupiter".
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I know two people who I would happily recommend this to. One is a Bon Jovi and Jesse Malin fan. He might find this a bit too sweet. Another loves Celine Dion (for whom our Seth has written songs) and Mariah Carey (which is where we came in).
On appeal , then, the final piece of evidence decides it. A line in the song "Instant Pleasure" goes "All I want is instant pleasure, instant pleasure, instant pleasure" (which is fair enough … it’s the refrain and the title) followed by a lightly exclaimed "Rock on!" and the politest guitar solo you can imagine. Is it patronising self-indulgent whimsy or is it a clever song for relaxed adults who appreciate a little self deprecation in their background music? You'll have to judge for yourself. But I'll not be listening again. Five times through is enough.
(N.B : An earlier version of this review stated that Seth Swirsky had failed in his plagiarism suit against Mariah Carey. Seth has let us know that the case continues and we apologise unreservedly for implying that the matter was closed. We have changed our text accordingly - Ed.)
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