Lo Faber - Henry's House (2001 Reissue) (2018)

Written in the two years following the breakup of God Street Wine, the seminal jam band he helped to found, Lo Faber's Henry's House purports to be the "first recorded jam band rock opera," though that distinction might go to the Peach Truck Republic for their subpar Fenceposts or the Disco Biscuits for their unrecorded (though marvelously complex) Hot Air Balloon. At any rate, it's a rock opera: two discs worth of GSW-like, Steely Dan-influenced hippie fusion with a clean production, tight vocal harmonies, and soaring instrumental passages. Like GSW, Henry's House struggles with bland rhythms. The band is driven by the rhythm section of the Ominous Seapods: bassist Tom Pirozzi and drummer Ted Marotta, one of the finest white-boy funk duos in the Northeast. The thing that made them work in the Seapods, though, was the pure heart of the songs -- the same thing that made Faber's creations work in God Street Wine as well. Here, instead of the four-minute pop song, Faber's songwriting is guided by the form of a rock opera. This is unfortunate. Given Faber's reliance on the creative use of the cliché, his rock opera conveys awfully little soul. The story itself is designed to be a fairy tale for adults (perhaps in the spirit of the Harry Potter books), but conveys very little complexity. The most interesting parts of the discs are the long instrumental sections, which combine jazz theory with Allman Brothers-meets-Frank Zappa harmony guitar parts. Still, the album is a fun listen, and will provide fodder for live performances for years to come.