David Martin claims to owe a debt to people like Billy Joel, Sting, Elton John, and Barry Manilow. He is also clearly in the market for the next big thing for the teen girls to swoon over this week (I mean, just look at that album cover).
If you’re in the mood for something with substance or something that admits the dreadful cuts of suffering and loss, you will probably want to just keep moving along. But if you want a little bit of “less filling, tastes great” sensitive-boy-pop, stop and listen for awhile. And, when it all comes down, there are far worse things than to add a few more schlocky love songs to the world.
I Will Love You – David Martin
This does lead me to a few more meta thoughts about the state of pop music. It seems a shame that so many people who are obviously talented are so fixated on using their skills to create music that almost seems to deliberately erase the soul. Maybe it’s just that stupid love songs have been around for so long that it’s difficult to say anything simple without having it come off as trite.
But I don’t really think that’s it. After all, there are plenty of love songs no more complicated in subject matter which don’t sound so sterile. For example, a song from a very pleasant little Irish folk-pop band called The Basement I came across a couple days ago:
Do You Think You’re Movin’ On? – The Basement
Theme: she’s gone, but he doesn’t even miss her. Really. For serious. Not even a little. The grapes were probably sour anyways.
This song has been written approximately 781 million times, but it sounds fresh here because they play with such exuberance. It’s just a two-minute pop song, and it doesn’t pretend to be anything more. And that’s what makes it so perfect.
Martin’s music, on the other hand, is almost clinical – it’s a how-to manual on the deployment of lyrical cliches (the changing of leaves, dreams, the fact that nothing stays the same…except our love, of course) with the inoffensive accompaniment of some paint-by-numbers instrumentation. It’s like those elaborate two-story storefronts designed to make a town look old-fashioned but which don’t actually have anything behind them.
And it’s not that I think he’s any less genuine in his emotions. Hell, he’s probably more genuine. But I just wish he could find a way to sound more like it. Something In Your Eyes is not a bad record, but if I hit me in the gut a bit more, it would sure be a lot better.