The album opens with “Worthless Treasure.” There is something classic about this song’s sound, particularly in the rhythm. While that familiar vibe might be what initially draws you in, you’ll soon find yourself immersed in Stephen Clair’s lyrics and vocal work. “If you bury your heart, your beautiful heart/That’s the worst part/Worthless treasure.” There is also some wonderful backing vocal work. What a great start to this album. That’s followed by “Lousy Butterfly,” a song title that caught my eye when I first glanced at the track list on the back of the CD case. This is a mellower number, featuring a heartfelt vocal delivery and some pretty work on keys, and of course some excellent lyrics. “Don’t make me explain/How one drop of rain/Can change everything.”
“To The Trees,” the album’s title track, is a fun character portrait about a person who suddenly walks out the door to live in the trees. It was inspired by Italo Calvino’s The Baron In The Trees. “Right then and there everything changed/She knew where she wanted to be/And that’s saying something/With your whole family watching/To get up from the table, walk out in the yard/Knowing who you really are.” That character herself is inspiring. There is humor to the tale too, as in the line “She always wins at hide and seek.” You can hear a bit of a Beatles influence in this track’s sound, and in Stephen Clair’s vocal delivery you can hear something of a Kinks influence. Then “Let It Out” is a lively, bright pop song with a wonderfully optimistic flavor. This is the first song I heard from this release. Here is a taste of the lyrics: “You try to tell your story, but it just sounds nuts/It’s the one you got and you gotta get it out/Let it out/ It’s about time.” You might find yourself singing along, “Let it out!”
One of my favorite tracks is “Not You.” It is immediately delightful, with that wonderful opening work on piano. It sounds kind of along the lines of something Randy Newman might do. Check out these lyrics: “Here comes a one-dog parade/He’s missing a leg/It don’t faze him/He still holds up his chin/Donkeys bray/They think it’s time to play/From midnight to dawn/Can someone sing along/Not you, not you.” So good, right? Plus, this track features some excellent and totally enjoyable work on horns. It is just a joy from beginning to end. That’s followed by “Vacation Back Home,” another of the disc’s highlights. This one has a relaxed pace and sound, fitting with the song’s lyrics about returning home. “Looking back where I grew up/It wasn’t so bad/The way I told it way back when/Made it sound kind of sad/Folks like me spend half our lives running away/Some of us might wise up and come around one day.” Why is it that songs about home are so moving, so effective? Whatever it is, I love this song. “There’s no one left around here I want to kiss/I sleep like a baby in the house where I used to live.”
“The World Turns” is another track that quickly grabbed me. Check out these lines: “Time stands still, and so do I/Your world turns and I stand by.” And these: “We wake up here every day/We run through our little play/I would go, but I don’t know which way.” Yeah, this guy can certainly write some good lyrics. But it’s also his delivery that makes songs like this one so appealing, so moving. “About My Body” is a short song, with vocals and acoustic guitar. And though the track is less than two minutes long, that is plenty of time for him to include some excellent lines, such as these: “This is not about what you think/This is not about your pain/It’s about what I believe/And making sense out of me/You don’t have to understand.” Then the opening lines of “Cry” made me laugh aloud the first time I heard them: “You don’t have to call me/God knows what that phone is for/If you think you want me/You might need to think some more.” I also love the way this song builds in power, and that surprising way it kicks in. “Cry, cry, cry, cry/Cry, cry, cry/If it suits you.” This is yet another of the disc’s highlights.
Near the beginning of “I Hope We Make It Here” he sings, “We could get out of the city at last.” I like that little pause he inserts before the words “at last.” This song too really speaks to me, and a lot of people I know are going through the same things. I have to imagine this song will have wide appeal. There is a good deal of humor as well, in lines like “Back in 1848/They didn’t quite insulate/You might say this house likes to breathe/Cold in winter, hot in summer/Not that it’s a total bummer/Just wait ‘til I tell you about the weeds.” There is a good dose of humor in a lot of his material, and in his delivery. For another example, check out the opening lines of “Make A Bed”: “Didn’t take much to convince me/To fall in love with someone like you/Or even just you.” Again, it’s that pause before “Or even just you” that helps to really push the humor of the line. And he knows how to grab us with his opening lines. The album’s final track, “A Human Echo,” opens with these lines: “We’ve been talking for thirty years/Never once thought of changing gears/This one conversation is the only one we know.” These lines also strike me: “Nothing we could talk about ever gets old/But we do.”
CD Track List
- Worthless Treasure
- Lousy Butterfly
- To The Trees
- Let It Out
- Not You
- Vacation Back Home
- The World Turns
- About My Body
- Cry
- I Hope We Make It Here
- Make A Bed
- A Human Echo
To The Trees is scheduled to be released on May 20, 2022.
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