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These days it’s become far too easy for musicians to simply cite their influences since inevitably audiophiles and critics can uncover those just by listening to their work.
However, when musician Shawn Fogel, who plays every single instrument in his August 18 release under the band name Golden Bloom, was asked to offer an explanation and influence-laced play-by-play of his effort Fan the Flames, The Smiths and The Beatles received only the tiniest of shout-outs. No, instead of just dubbing a guitar hook Wilco inspired the way that nearly every critic has described Fan the Flames as sounding like that band during their Summerteeth era, Fogel’s artistic muses will definitely surprise.
Drawing upon inspiration discovered in everything from books such as Confessions of an Economic Hitman and The Perks of Being a Wallflower and DVDs including Network, and The Atomic Café, Fogel seems to absorb culture and politics like a sponge.
Taking a cue from Radiohead perhaps, Fan the Flames has been hitting the internet one site at a time with each given track landing at a different music site for fans to download for free. And with this clever strategy, interest has been building steadily in the “power pop” sounds of the man who records all by his lonesome but goes incognito as the faux group-sounding title Golden Bloom, playing live at club dates with a varying roster of impressive musicians. A veritable revolving door of artists who share the stage with Fogel so that no show is identical to the previous one — while the sound of the music may change ever so slightly with Tom Petty shout outs added in as you can witness here — the lyrics of his works remain the same.
Yet instead of cheap shots or one-line jabs, the lyrics of Flames are creatively articulated throughout and one may not even catch on to precisely what it is Fogel is referencing on the initial passive — driving in your car with the windows down — listen, given the musical framework of deceptively sunny sounding, infectious ditties that comprise the roughly thirty seven minute disc.
Of course, part of the reason you may not catch on right away is because — as has been the trend of late for both music and film — the independent offering is packaged without a booklet or insert that gives us the opportunity to relish in the written lyrics. For those, like this reviewer who is still fighting against the trend of dropping CD production in favor of simply digital downloads in the future, it’s a disappointment as the pleasure of a great booklet that lists the music credits, lyrics, contains photography or sketches is one of our last remaining tangible products that separates the concept of an album from simply a disc you burned from your iTunes download library.
Yet Fan the Flames wins you over with a danceable retro tune that kickstarts the album with the first track “E.H.M.” which I can only assume is a nod to Fogel’s admitted inspiration of author John Parkins’ nonfiction work Confessions of an Economic Hitman.
He follows up the opener with the most recognizable track off the new release — the instantly catchy “Doomsday Devices” which seems to have become the official first single with the production of an offbeat Bush era style music video inspired by his fascination with the 1982 documentary film The Atomic Café and its startling balance of humor and tragedy in chronicling the development of the atomic bomb.
Again it’s dressed up in the complex musicality of an upbeat Ben Folds like orchestration that serves as a counterpoint for his true satiric intention. In my eyes and without the knowledge of Atomic Café, it feels as though it’s delivered in a Kubrickian Dr. Strangelove spirit but one that musically takes a fare more subtle approach than Green Day did with “American Idiot” or “Holiday.”
Lyrically, Fogel acknowledges that it’s a change of pace wherein he uses first-person but sings as though he’s a character other than himself by critiquing “the Bush administration’s insertion of ‘weapons of mass destruction’ into the American lexicon,” by portraying the President of the United States in the video as he opens the track with “You think you see me/but it’s only what I’m willing to show/you think you understand me/but it’s only what I want you to know.”
Still, all politics aside and even if you completely miss that interpretation the first time around, what you’re left with is a great indie pop rock track that feels like an ideal summer song, if only the album had been released a bit earlier as it’s addicting enough for some serious radio play.
Moving away from politics into a romantic ballad that begins like a folky Neil Young song crossed with the Americana fusion of Ryan Adams’ Gold and the dreamy nature of Guster with the 2002 penned semi-autobiographical “She Leaves Me Poetry” which recalls the end of a long relationship, with in-joke references about the things that bonded them such as Stephen Chbosky’s wondrous coming-of-age novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower whose main character Charlie he relates to in the words.
Despite calling “The Fight at the End of the Tunnel” an all-out “fight song” which to Fogel was intended as “the musical equivalent of” Peter Finch’s famous “I’m as mad as hell” scene from Network, in the world of musical genres, it’s a pretty quiet fight song when placed next to those from metal or punk. Aside from employing the guitar to drive home the testosterone to the pop music listeners in the traditional Wilco like Golden Bloom way, it doesn’t have quite the impact that he aspired it would and ultimately marks a turn for the album which starts wearing thin at the halfway point. However, this being said “Fight” sounds infinitely better live (which you can see in YouTube footage here) and fortunately the disc’s bumpy second half boasts a few standouts.
For a closer, he adds in a surprise minute-long rant aptly titled “Your Minute of Fame” which referenced the recent former Illinois Governor Blagojevich debacle that he’s hoping will appeal to Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert.
And although again politics were the “outside agitator” (to use a ‘60s phrase) which inspired a majority of the work, overall Fogel’s Golden Bloom manages to morph all of the madness of the previous years into multifaceted melodies.
Layering on all of his own instrumental work on the piano, bass guitar, keyboards, harmonica, drums, and tenor sax into rhythms you can dance to and lyrics which remind us that it’s okay not to completely understand how to process what we’ve been faced with as a nation either — in the end Fan the Flames is proof that sometimes the best process is through a process like music itself.
1) E.H.M
2) Doomsday Devices
3) Fan the Flames
4) She Leaves Me Poetry
5) The Flight at the End of the Tunnel
6) Dead Petals
7) If You Believe
8) The Mountainside Says
9) Theme for an Adventure at Sea
10) (Unlisted) Your Minute of Fame
