St. Johnny - Let It Come Down (1995/2019)

On Let It Come Down, St. Johnny create an enjoyable sound halfway between the slacker rock of Pavement's Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain and Mercury Rev's Boces and Yerself Is Steam. The album's 13 songs are generally more glam and harder than Pavement and less elaborate and experimental than Mercury Rev. With Dave Fridmann co-producing the album and providing musical backup, there's no reason why Let It Come Down wouldn't sound like Mercury Rev. "Just When I Had It Under Control," "Wild Goose Chasing," and most of the tracks here sound like B-sides to Pavement's Slanted and Enchanted, as Bill Whitten's lackadaisical vocal style almost sounds like mimicry of Stephen Malkmus. Whether that's a good or bad thing is up to an individual listener, but for the most part, Whitten doesn't have Malkmus' witty timing or ability to craft interesting lyrics. The only other element of the song that doesn't shout Pavement is the repeated, harmonic chanting of "yeah...yeah." "Bluebird" is an elaborate song almost approaching chamber pop aided by weird instrumentation from Mercury Rev's Grasshopper. Whitten is in near-crooner mode, as violins add a swirling air to the song. Lambchop would later come along and make an entire career from a sound similar to "Bluebird." There are too many songs that don't take off or become a bit grating due to unfocused noise, such as "Pin the Tail on the Donkey," "Hey Teenager!," and "Fast, Cheap and Out of Control." Stronger songwriting would have probably been the only remedy. Let It Come Down is the sound of a band reveling, or trying to revel, in its influences and a state of exaggerated cool, as there's not much innovation or improvement when the songs are compared to the band's peers. The album is certainly good fun at times, but really nothing more when compared to other albums in the same genre.