Reviews
Heypenny
Use These Spoons
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Add to del.ico.us.Review Date: 2006-09-05
Some artists sound like other artists. When you listen to them, you just can’t help but to compare them to other artists. In fact, most artists sound like other artists. But sometimes, there are exceptions to the rule. This is not one of these times. Less than half-a-minute into Use These Spoons, you’ll have exclaimed “Eureka! Heypenny sound like Sufjan Stevens!” Thus why I’m the perfect person to review this album. This is the kind of music that I like. Luckily for you, I don’t adore Sufjan the way some other people do. I didn’t even buy The Avalanche. In fact, I haven’t even heard one track from it. So therefore I won’t simply be referring to Heypenny as a sub-par Sufjan.
Opener ‘Dooley’ is in the Sufjan vein – a storytelling song about “John Dooley Mallyback Miller the third / nineteen and never spoken a word.” The music contrasts completely with the lyrics: it’s bouncy and uplifting, whereas “even the tomatoes in the supermarket look so sad”. After a chance meeting with a beautiful girl, his life is changes, and the chorus is replaced with the chiming “Go, go moped, go!” That’s Heypenny’s strongest point – the storytelling. When they descend into pure Sufjan territory, as on the ‘They are Night Zombies’ mimicking ‘Parade’, the instrumentation becomes just too overpowering. Although the lines “I love chocolate cake / bring me a few pieces / I am really, really hungry” almost make up for the rest of the song’s misgivings.
‘Seem so small’ is one of the standout tracks on the album. An epic lovesong about a girl whose innocence is ruined by her climb to the top: “You got so high / but now you seem so small.” ‘Let it rain’ starts off like a church hymn, showcasing Kevin Bevil’s vocals. It continues to be a haunting little song, although perhaps the subject matter is all-too-familiar. Sylvia Plath once said that every August hundreds of aspiring poets write poems about rain (she has a few herself), and this song is probably one of those. I wonder was it written in August?
‘Everything is Bright’ sounds a lot like – no, not Sufjan! – Josh Ritter. It uses Ritter’s fingerpicked acoustic style, and a soft, soothing melody. If this song had have been labelled with Ritter under the artist tag, I would not have questioned it. While his voice isn’t as gruff, Heypenny does make some great Ritter-like acoustic ballads. ‘Brave’ is the most adventurous song here – crossing Béla Fleck with The Roots. And it’s good, by the way. I need say no more. ‘Secreterror’ opens like a tune from the pen of Chris Martin, before descending into the usual Sufjan-like territory.
‘Walnut St. Bridge’ must be a cover because I swear I’ve heard it before – and not the few times I’ve listened to this to review it – before that, before I had even heard the name Heypenny. ‘Radio’ is the longest song here at seven minutes, and does start to get a bit grating around the fifth. Although I must say that the female vocal accompaniment on the song is splendid, and perhaps should have been used on more, if not all, of the songs.
Tracks to Hear: Seems So Small, Dooley, Brave, Everything is Bright
Score: 7.9
Not a sub-par Sufjan. Something similar, yet interestingly different. And no artist could complain about a Sufjan Stevens comparison these days. I wonder have Heypenny forty-nine more like this in them though?
- Ronan Hunt-Murphy