Mason Jennings

Simple can be beautiful.  Left without a framework of feeling or substance, though, it can also be boring.  This is one of the reasons Mason Jennings falls short of his aesthetic reach with his latest, Use Your Voice.

All of the music on the album is almost solely courtesy of Jennings' guitar, which puts a very heavy stake in the ground - as it forces it to live and die on his voice and fret.  Although this can be a strong way to unite the listener with the singer by stripping away the unnecessary, it also leaves the music exposed.  It's out there, and it's got to be strong to win you over.   And if it doesn't win you over, it simply falls away, forgettable.

Jennings doesn't have a bad voice.  It's actually a pretty good one - the foundation is there for some affecting vocals - but he seems to get mired in a formula: the uncomplicated road-weary troubadour longing for love, peace and a warm place to sleep.  And just to drive home this self-definition, he seems to imitate the man best respected for such sentiment: Bob Dylan.  So much so, it seems forced; like he wanted to lend someone else's personality to his songs.

There are some sharp musical moments, but they are often negated by the lyrics and his delivery.  "Lemon Grove Avenue" demands attention, only to lose it with his repetitive delivery of wan lyrics in the refrain.  "Keepin' it Real" builds momentum, but never gets off the ground.  It's message, although cheerfully sung, is without any real meaning, and, as modern catch phrases go, the title doesn't really lend itself to the singer-songwriter genre of music.

The album as a whole does have a "live" feel to it, as was intended by Jennings, but it reminds me of a live show at some bar I barely remember with songs I could barely tell apart; in a word: unremarkable.