Breaking News: One Buck Guy Gets Feisty, Listens To Modern Music, For Once...

 

...and I don't really plan to make a habit of it. But stranger things have happened I guess. Still, this obviously isn't music that would bother the charts or the, uh, airwaves (streamwaves?). If you are following this blog for a while, you must've surely heard me mention les soldes, the twice-a-year stock-clearing sales promotion that inevitably has the few stores who still have music sections throw out their unwanted stock. Most of it is crap (well, probably), but the fact that they throw out albums for a couple of bucks gives me the opportunity to take a flyer on something that looks interesting enough. If I were a younger, hipper guy I could of course whip out my smart phone in the store and pull up the artist whose album I have in hand. But that would be spoiling the fun, wouldn't it? Instead I try from scanning the covert art and song titles whether this could be something interesting. And that is how I fell on our One Buck Record of the day, SYML's The Day My Father Died. 

The cover art looked like it might be a folk record of some kind, and I recognized a couple of guest artists mentioned on the back cover (Elbow's Guy Garvey and Nickelcreek's Sara Watkins, whose solo debut I had picked up during the soldes a decade or so ago), so I figured this might be my jam. And it kind of sort of is, otherwise it wouldn't be up here, natch! SYML is Brian Fennell, an indie musician from the Pacific Northwest. 2023's The Day My Father Died is his second album, inspired by the death of his adoptive father. It has grief , heritage and loss as topics, but it never gets too maudlin. Which, given the fact that Fennell sometimes slips into a falsetto, was a real risk, bringing to mind the memory of Bon Iver. 

You guys remember Bon Iver? Justin Iver, one of the most overrated and overpraised projects of the early 2010s? I have excessively used the term young men's earnest sad sack music in the last months and plan to retire that term soon, but if it fits for something, it's Bon Iver's incredibly overhyped For Emma, Forever Ago, that came with its own picture perfect origin story of Vernon, after a romantic breakup, locking himself in an isolated cabin in the woods and coming up with a quote-unquote masterpiece of romantic despair. Except it sucked. No melodies, no memorable songs, and the awful strained falsetto made for an unpleasant listening experience, completely diametral to what the critics and their reviews promised. But I digress.

 So, SYML - Fennel's nom de plume recalls his Welsh heritage, 'siml' being the local varaint of 'simple' - is no Bon Iver, thank god. These songs have melodies, some of them quite memorable, too. They have structure and they are generally well sung, with the falsetto used sparingly. Not awful caterwauling here, no sir. What we do have here is a sort of modern folk-rock, possible close to what someone like Hozier is doing (I'm no expert in the matter, mind). It also turns out he had a bonafide hit somewhat similar to what he is up to on this album. "Where's My Love?" was featured in Teen Wolf, and then numerous teen-oriented TV series from 2018 onwards and is now certified Platinum, whatever that means in the streaming age. Of course, I was cmpletely oblivious to this man and any successes he might've had when I picked this up. 

So, how do we know this truly is modern music, even with its folk-rock twist? Because my then seven year old loved it, demanding I play the song she liked to sing a long all the 'oweo--o-o-o-o-o' of the title song, the lyrics of which she happily doesn't understand, though she's phonetically singing along "...the day my father died" (gulp!). It's a big song with a big hook, yet was never released as a single. It's also not alone on the album as The Day My Father Died has enough 'oweo's' and other stadium-ready singalong elements, and some light electronics. You know, for the young'uns. On the other hand, his music clearly has its origins in DIY folk - thus the Bon Iver comparison - so people who like classic, guitar-based acoustic music should also give a listen. A song like "Sweet Home" reminds recalls the era of Crosby, Stills & Nash, even if one-man band SYML harmonizes with himself. 

If you noticed the little One Buck Records logo on the cover or the tags, you'll see that this is my personal version of the album. I thought the original never really got out of the starting gates, only picking up steamm occasionally, so I resequenced the album from the ground up. I also thought it was a little long and repetitive, so I deleted two tracks, incidentally two of the features (bye bye Lucius, bye bye Sara!). At a now vinyl era-compatible 47 minutes and with a much improved flow, I think SYML's The Day My Father Died is an album well worth listening to, even if - like me - you have given up on modern music trends a hile ago. The Day My Father Died combines modern and retro elements in what I find is a very attractive manner. Check this out to see if you feel the same way...