| Popmatters |
 When John Wesley Harding arrived on the music scene in 1990, he probably expected to be called the New Dylan. After all, every singer-songwriter who followed in Dylan’s wake got that treatment. Harding even wrote a song for his debut album in which he preemptively declared, “Bob Dylan is my father / Joan Baez is my mother / And I am their bastard son.” So, it must have been disappointing when, instead, he was declared the New Elvis Costello. On the surface, the comparison makes sense: like Costello, Harding is identifiably British, undeniably clever, and uses a lot of multi-syllabic words. On one of his albums, he even employed two-thirds of Costello’s backing band, the Attractions. But there is also a key difference between the two: where Costello’s early songs were self-described tales of “revenge and guilt”, Harding’s are generally more playful than anguished. Where Costello was out for blood, Harding seemed mostly interested in drawing laughs. Indeed, the past master he has the most in common with is Loudon Wainwright III, who also reports on the world in a skewed and witty, but essentially benign, way.
Harding’s new album, The Sound of His Own Voice is yet another smorgasbord of flavorful musical dishes, but befitting his age—at 45 he’s no longer the new anything—the best tracks are flavored with a pinch of nostalgia and a dash of regret. Neither of these ingredients, however, are present on the lead-off track, “Sing Your Own Song”, a simplistic paean to the simplicity of songwriting, sprinkled with a few flakes of paternal pride. Indeed, the recipe he provides is just about as flavorless as the song’s bouncy, banal tune: “You can write your own words / You can sing your own song / And it doesn’t really matter if you’re out of tune / Or if no one sings along / Cos if you do what you like / And you like what to do / Then someone somewhere knows you’re there / And the world may come to you / When you sing your own song.” It’s the pop music equivalent of fast food for the kids, I suppose.
Each of the dozen tracks that follow has much more to recommend it. In “I Should Have Stopped”, the narrator sees an old childhood flame at the laundromat, but walks on rather than saying hello, “Because it’s ancient history and we are not the same / And we will never know the mystery again.” Here and elsewhere, Harding expertly captures both the wistfulness of old memories and the ambivalence of middle age refection. On “Uncle Dad”, he deals with the complications of divorce, from a child’s point of view, with an equally light touch, seeing both the absurdity and the poignancy that result: “I remember once when he came in for a drink / And he was there in the morning / Sitting in the kitchen with a mug of instant coffee / Yawning / Mum was smiling when we went to school / Later she was in mourning.” Such precise insights are rare in a three-minute song, but Harding (who also has three novels to his credit under his real name, Wesley Stace) delivers such little gems throughout the album....full text |
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| Allmusic |
| Now that he's used to living a double life as a musician and a novelist (publishing three books under his given name, Wesley Stace), John Wesley Harding has become more comfortable with leaving his most serious side on the printed page, and while his tenth studio album, The Sound of His Own Voice, shows he still has a point of view and no shyness about expressing it, from a musical standpoint, this is one of his most engaging pieces of pop songcraft since he burst onto the scene with Here Comes the Groom in 1989. Scott McCaughey (who played on Harding's 2009 effort, Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead) co-produced The Sound of His Own Voice with the singer and songwriter, and he brought in an impressive variety of collaborators for these sessions, including Peter Buck, Rosanne Cash, and John Moen, Chris Funk, Jenny Conlee, and Nate Query of the Decemberists, and the results are beautifully crafted and entertainingly eclectic, encompassing the jaunty folk-rock of "Uncle Dad," the nervy rock & roll of "Calling Off the Experiment," the R&B underpinnings of "I Should Have Stopped," and the epic scale finale "The World in Song." Harding's literary efforts have helped hone his already impressive gifts as a lyricist, but while his storytelling is sharp and his wordplay more than clever, he's gained an appreciation for human vulnerabilities that give these songs a warmth even when he points a deserving finger, and his lyrics dovetail well with the expansive (but never overbearing) production and arrangements. There's an amusing irony in the fact that Harding has gotten better at making records now that he's doing it part time, but The Sound of His Own Voice is not only stronger in every respect than Who Was Changed…, it's one of the most consistently satisfying albums of his career, and sounds more like the proper follow-up to the excellent Here Comes the Groom than anything he's made since....full text |
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| Store |
| Now 19 albums and three novels into one of the arts' most compelling careers, John Wesley Harding bring us The Sound of His Own Voice. Recorded at the Type Foundry in Portland, Oregon, the album was produced by Harding and Scott McCaughey (The Minus Five, The Baseball Project, R.E.M., Young Fresh Fellows) and mixed by Tucker Martine (My Morning Jacket, The Decemberists, Spoon). It features the all-star King Charles Trio, whose lineup includes John Moen, Chris Funk, Jenny Conlee and Nate Query, all members of The Decemberists, Peter Buck of R.E.M. and McCaughey. Rosanne Cash, Laura Veirs and John Roderick (The Long Winters) also lend their vocal talents to the record. In addition to his work as a recording artist, Harding has written three novels under his given name, Wesley Stace. His first book, Misfortune, was an international bestseller. His most recent, Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer, was published to rave reviews from The New Yorker, The New York Times and the Huffington Post, among many others. The Los Angeles Times hailed the book as "carefully plotted and brilliantly executed," while the Wall Street Journal called it "dazzling."...full text |
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