Minneapolis is the land of quirky, yet excellent musicians. Take Prince, Information Society, Boiled in Lead, and Semisonic (formerly Trip Shakespeare) for starters, and you've already gone full circle around the musical map. Now add John Wozniak's band, Marcy Playground, to the list of strange and stunning. Their self titled debut is a decent collection of dreamy alterna-pop songs backed by a simple three piece band.
While enrolled in the experimental "Marcy Open School", Wozniak spent the better part of his youth gazing out at the playground and daydreaming. This, the bio explains, gave birth to Wozniak's knack for envisioning the meandering trail of stories on this album. The first track, "Poppies", is a little shanty set "Long, long ago in China" about pirates and their true "magic" treasure. The second track, "Sex and Candy", is a fantasy about a retro girl "in platform double suede". Sings Wozniak, "And then there she was like disco lemonade. I smell sex and candy here, mm-hmm." Lou Reed might raise a knowing eye brow, but the track does its own thing just fine.
Wozniak doesn't stop his lyrical tour until he's been around to the dog eat dog world of business, a lonely suicide from a country bridge, elves and magic spells, and New York's night life. Such themes aren't exactly typical fare for alterna-pop albums these days, but Marcy Playground does just fine with their own lyrical agenda. The few personal songs, "Saint Joe on the School Bus" and "Sherry Fraser", are excellent, but there's no brooding angst to be found here. You'll only find yourself popping this CD in to enjoy hanging out with friends on a lazy afternoon.
Musically, Marcy Playground reflects a cross between Matthew Sweet, The Lemonheads, and Semisonic. Wozniak and producer Jared Kotler use a slower, less distorted version of the standard three piece band that most listeners are used to. Acoustic guitar is featured on most of the songs, and the tunes go from melodic to hazy to loopy and carefree. Wozniak's cool and mellow voice is featured prominently in a mix that conspiciously lacks back-up vocals. He sings with virtually no force, and whenever Wozniak croons, "yeah" or "ah...ahh", the tone just trails off into nothingness.
The self-titled debut from Marcy Playground launches the band into friendly company in the alterna-pop world. You would think this style of music is easy to make, but even established bands like Matthew Sweet and The Lemonheads only get it right every other album if they're lucky. Surprisingly, Marcy Playground gets it right on their first time out. That's no small task, and it makes this self-titled album worth a few spins in your CD player.
On the Web ,check out http://www.marcyplayground.com for more information.
