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Unbunny
Snow Tires

HiddenAgenda
2004
B-



here are artists of various media who would have us believe that heartache involves an obsessively personal system of melancholy that turns the world into a grey mess. But a record about heartbreak doesn’t have to be cloying. Of course, by its very nature, breaking up with someone is a first class ticket to self-loathing. But the best break-up albums aren’t about stagnation, they’re about motion: moving away or struggling to keep up. Written in the aftermath of a break-up that drove Jared Del Deo from New Hampshire to Illinois, Snow Tires’ back story has all the marks of a cringe worthy set of all too personal songs. But Del Deo avoids the pitfalls of the confessional singer-songwriter publicly exorcizing personal demons by creating a record that’s more about the journey away from that moment of conflict than about wallowing in its immediacy.

Unbunny, the lo-fi pop project of Jared Del Deo, mines familiar musical territory that provides easy reference to Harvest-era Neil Young, Neutral Milk Hotel and Scud Mountain Boys Massachusetts. Produced by The Rights, Snow Tires pulls Del Deo out of the bedroom, away from the simplicity of his four track, adding a lusher production to his first outing for Hidden Agenda records. Del Deo’s songs are fleshed out with piano, strains of electric guitar, drums, organ and even a children’s choir. What has resulted is one of the prettiest and most honest records you’ll hear this year; and, refreshingly, one that’s built on a foundation of subtle emotion. Del Deo’s songwriting weaves its way through his personal turmoil with care and patience, avoiding the effusive flailing of an Elliott Smith, Chris Carrabba, or Bob Forrest.

Despite the additional musicians Snow Tires is still very much centered on Del Deo’s reedy, nasal voice. At worst his voice has a tendency to inflect the songs with a certain sameness, but his image heavy lyrics are ample distraction from whatever weaknesses he may have as a singer. The album opener “Casserole” is filled with Del Deo’s vision of the world as seen from the road, one populated by “flat-chested trailer brides/Their braces and bottle caps/Jangle like tambourines”. “I Leave Stones Unturned” repeats the line “motor away, I motor away too soon when I want to stay”. The song “Nothing Comes To Rest” is filled with “empty miles pressing with the weight” he thought he was escaping. “Certain Lights” rides on a swirling organ until it builds to an uncharacteristically dense crescendo. The sense of travel is palpable throughout Snow Tires whether through lyric imagery or the mournful sound of a slide guitar underpinning Del Deo’s acoustic strumming.

In the closing number, “Snow Tires”, Del Deo pulls a fast one on the listener by using the final track of the record as a recounting of the event that put the whole mess into motion in the first place. In hushed voice Del Deo relates the conversation he had with a friend, a gut punch game of telephone, “James says you told Nance that you think of me differently now”. When Del Deo gets to the line, “I checked your oil for you, you could use some good tires before the storm” we’re already privy to both the coming storm and the gem of a record that will result.



Reviewed by: Peter Funk

Reviewed on: 2004-11-05

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