You'll forgive me for not leaping around with excitement when presented with the job of listening to and reviewing Brian Huber's album. The list of artists he's been compared to doesn't suggest excitement. In fact, quite the contrary. Travis, Ben Folds, Doves, Oasis, Coldplay... please, no. Reading the press release, Brian's first comment relates to how liberating he found recording a song in his boxers. No disrespect to Mr Huber, but it's not an image I want to be given, certainly not as a first impression.
I have to admit that the opening track, 'Reverie' came as a complete surprise. Not only was I still awake by the end of it, but have to admit that it's pretty good, in a ponderous alt-rock sort of a way.
Things soon settle to a more sedate pace, and before too long the predictable, pedestrian acoustic plods. In short, the Travis comparisons are entirely accurate - musically, at least, with 'Talk Without a Word' being Huber’s ‘Driftwood.' Lyrically, however, Brian is (at least at times) a rather more interesting proposition. No, not when he's philosophising that 'life is like a song, it’s so bittersweet and it doesn't last long', but when he sings of the boredom and discomfort of being shipwrecked - the flipside of the romantic ideal of a desert island – it’s clear he has a knack for painting a picture in words. Indeed, the two parts of 'Shipwrecked' are well conceived, portraying the two very different sides of the same coin.
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There are a few other points of interest too, but this isn't necessarily a good thing. Take, for example, the danced-up disco-pop of 'Snuggies', which sounds completely out of place and is lyrically embarrassing. In fact, it's so bad, it's enough to make me wish he’d stuck to the Travis / Coldplay thing. What was he thinking?
Brian Huber on MySpace
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