REVIEW: Jason Falkner, Can You Still Feel? (Elektra)
- John Davidson
"Take a chance with me. And you will find you're only dreaming. Dream awhile and when you awake. You'll find me gone." So goes "The Invitation", the lead track on Jason Falkner's follow-up to the best pop record of 1996, Author Unknown. Maybe it's a plea for recognition, or maybe it's a soothsayer telling it like it is. The music business takes no prisoners, and has a history of making fools who believe otherwise. Falkner, who played with The Three O'Clock, Jellyfish, the Grays, and others before heading out on his own, certainly has seen the downs and a few ups during his musical career, including Can You Still Feel? which has been sitting in the can for about a year already as it went through the machinations at Elektra.
That said, Falkner's talents are again seeing the light on Can You Still Feel? As before, he is playing and singing everything, creating dense, multi-layered pop songs that often begin like sketches but end as musical portraits full of detail. This is not guitar-based pop rock in the order of the Gin Blossoms or Third Eye Blind. It's got more touch and grace to it, more craft applied, more personal flourishes, and considerably more ambition. That's probably why it doesn't sound much like a tight band blazing through some simple, three chord songs.
The result is that his ideas take more time to soak in. While the requisite hooks and sugar-coated swirls have immediate appeal, it takes awhile to embrace the scope of the album. Quirky bridges, shifting tempos, and shuffling lyrics create eccentricities that seem to develop longer than they did on "Author Unknown." It's not the easy sipping drink of before; the bitters are stronger this time as Falkner wanders through old relationships ("The Plan", "Honey") and does some soul searching ("Revelation" or "Eloquence".) He's moved slightly away from pure pop veneer in his past, and become a little more contemplative. Ironically, the song "Author Unknown" seems as though it may have fit better on his previous album of the same name. Still, if you heard his last one, or his work with the Grays, you know what to expect and won't be disappointed.
Ultimately, Falkner is a first-rate writer, knowing how to elaborate an idea without strapping on too many musical indulgences. A twist here, a turn there, but rarely in excess. It's one of the advantages of doing everything yourself, but as great as Can You Still Feel? is, it's not the record that will break him wide into the mainstream. He's still just another singer-songwriter whose pop songs are probably too complex for mass radio appeal. However, he's one of the best working right now, and that leaves him a well-kept secret for the rest of us.
