REVIEW: My Friend Steve, Hope & Wait (Mammoth)
- Tracey Bleile
On a recent foray to rummage for music, I came across no fewer than three copies of My Friend Steve's Hope & Wait in one store's used bins. And I thought, damn, isn't it amazing that just because you might not recognize what you've got in your hands, what people will dump 'ASAFP' (you translate for yourself; as soon as * possible). You want the life lesson again? Okay, I've learned the hard way that sometime you don't know you got till you sell it off for three lousy dollars.
Gainesville's thoughtful popsters My Friend Steve is one of those earnest, radio-ready talents who will probably get shoved aside by many after only a listen or two, but they genuinely deserve a chance to wend their way in. Yes, they sound like a less frenetic Counting Crows - or is it a more energetic (um, talented) Verve Pipe? Check out the lead track "The Schooling" and you'll get a much more interesting lesson than "Freshmen". To these still not too jaded ears, it's a lot more honest and a lot less irritating than some fodder currently clogging radio waves. Not to mention startlingly tight and polished, for a band that literally fell together and released Hope & Wait in a matter of months.
Hope & Wait features a pile of sweetly painful songs where the tempo and the emotion are 180 degrees from another. Songs like the bouncy country-flavored "Better Left Behind", the gentle Crowded House-influenced keyboards and harmonies of "Lessening Mercies", or the playful parade-march of "Always The Way" have stingingly introspective lyrics that belie the unbelievably pretty arrangements. No sense doing open-heart surgery if you don't have the keenest blade you can find, right? There is no heavy-handedness to be found in Hope & Wait; a little introspection with your music is *good* for you! Eat up, kids.
