John P. Strohm - Everyday Life (2007)

Eight years is a long stretch between albums, no matter how you slice it. Following the release of 1999's Vestavia, indie rocker and jack-of-all-bands John P. Strohm got married, started a family, and acquired a law degree. Big changes, but you wouldn't necessarily know it from a quick listen to his 2007 album, Everyday Life. From the flannel shirt-clad, tambourine-shaking post-grunge optimism of "Sha La" to the plodding, roots rock pathos of "Another Losing Season," Everyday Life feels like it could have been made ten years prior to its release. Which in a way makes sense. This album is more or less a '90s nostalgia piece, a lingering look back at youth and recklessness and irresponsibility; it's a bittersweet, occasionally bitter, and wry story about an indie rocker turned family man. "Remember what it's like to be 29?" Strohm quips. "'Cause neither do I." Naturally, this kind of thing has been done before, but Strohm generally manages to talk about high school and being a poor twenty-something without dipping into clichéd soppiness. "Graduation Day" is a convincing and sweet ode to high school love, and "Waiting for the World to End" verges on the kind of songwriting that made Vestavia something to talk about. There's very little to complain about when it comes to Everyday Life; this is technically sound power pop, the product of a man who clearly knows his way around a song. But if the album is comfortable and solid, it's still missing a certain something. This just isn't Strohm's most vital work. There was a spark and an edge that made Vestavia rise above its power pop peers; Everyday Life only manages to muster a steady smolder.