Wednesday, October 18, 2006

CD Review: Jayson Bales & The Revival’s Cruel & Unusual

By Blair Lovern

Cruel & Unusual by Jayson Bales is one of the must-have CDs of the year. I don't mean just local CDs. I'm talking all CDs put out by all people on planet earth during its most recent revolution around the sun.

Bales said his fourth release is one he's most proud of, and based on the quality of this record, this married father of three has every reason to be proud. I wrote that last sentence to make fun of miserable, uninspiring writers who make me want to puke. Hey, man, cut me some slack. I just got through listening to Cruel & Unusual. The songs are stark. They're dark. The world isn't all-the-time pretty.

I'm going a bit overboard. But here's why this CD is more than 10 bitter songs about the crap in life. Bales said he "started to become kind of cynical at the ugliness of the world. But at the same time, I'm hopeful of the beauty and hope of the individual. These songs might be more dark than I've done before, but there is hope in every song, even triumph."

As I take many of the songs on this CD, and it may or may not be the way Bales does, changing a dirty world is an impossible job for an individual. So how do you deal with it? That, friend, is up to you. I knew a baseball coach a long time ago say that when you're in a pinch at game time you can sit there and bitch about it all day long and get nowhere. Or you can fight your way out and move ahead. Crude analogy, yes, but you get the idea. The songs do a better job. It's easy to slip into an introspective mood from this record right away. The songs are powerful. Play them loud for full effect.

Musically, Bales and the band have ditched the sound by which most fans know them.

"I kind of have a reputation as an alt-country guy, or a Texas music guy," he said. "I kind of don't like to be told I can't do something. I'm little stubborn, and in the past when people have told me, 'You can't play with this guy' or 'You can't open for this band because that's not what you do' then I want to prove them wrong. I wanted to try something different on this CD, and I decided to take a left turn with my art so to speak. This is a rock album. I guess I've just evolved over the years. I think every time you make an album you do something different. I always want to be better as a songwriter, better as a musician and try new things."

This is the first record after Bales signed with Pampelmoose Records this past summer. It was produced by Salim Nourallah at Pleasantry Lane.

I hate saying this, but some of these songs would truly enhance a movie or TV show. Sounds trite, I know. That’s not how I mean it. Cruel & Unusual has some terrific stories, which could enrich a good story in another medium. Listening to “Las Vegas” track, for example, one of the first things that popped in my mind is that some producer should stick that song in the show CSI when Gil Grissom is walking around a dead body just shaking his head and wondering what the hell the world has come to. I don’t watch the show, but my wife does, so I have nothing more than an ancillary idea of Gil Grissom walking around dead bodies doing that. Probably doesn't, so who cares.

Anyway, Bales admits that storytelling is his strong suit.

“I try a bunch of writing styles,” he said. “I’m constantly trying to test myself. I’m probably best at telling stories, I guess I’m better at that than the more obtuse stuff. But I like trying the more obtuse, like on this CD there’s ‘Amy's Song’ and ‘Why Don't You Cry Anymore’, which leave a little more to the imagination. I try to write as much as possible, whether it’s writing songs or a journal or blogging, or writing somewhere else just for the sake of it.

“I have three journals of songs, some that will never see the light of day. Some of it's crap. But every once in a while something will come out decent. I just keep doing it and doing it and doing it. Sometimes I’ll wake up middle of night, write a title and two lines to a song and that will be it, then I won't come back to it for two months.

“I didn't write specifically for this album, I just felt like it was time and I did it. Two of the songs – ‘I Wonder Where You Are Tonight’ and ‘I Walk Alone – I wrote in middle of recording. I spent the most time I’ve worked on a record this time, we really pieced everything together carefully, building it song by song. I believe in being efficient in the studio, but this one we recorded in two months.”

by Olga Arseniev

Jayson and the band

Here’s true efficiency: Bales, a financial advisor in the daytime, wrote "I Wonder Where You Are Tonight" on his BlackBerry in his car on the way to work in between stoplights one morning.

He'll have to put time management skills to use again very soon. Bales is scheduled to be on the FOX 4 morning show this Thursday, he's got a CD release party this Saturday, he'll be featured in the Dallas Morning News and other publications in the near future, he'll be on tour in other states next year, plus he's still in the office managing big piles of cash and at home with the family. Life will only get busier when fans hear Cruel & Unusual.

“You've always got to be growing," Bales said. "My life is constantly changing. I've got three children now, work and family, and hopefully I can play music in between all that. And with the music what I do is just observe the world around me, I take in what I read and see. Unfortunately, I still think the world is an ugly place at times. But there is so much love and outpouring and triumph in people. At least the human spirit will always be there."

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Comments

Pikahsso allen Poe Verified

man Jason is a interesting dude and cool as hell this was a good article i wish it was more.....

2 years, 8 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Mike Orren Staff

It's cool to hear how these songs developed over time. Jason performed "335," "X Street" and "Lazarus Banquet Table" in our offices almost a year ago. You can find the songs here: http://www.texasgigs.com/bands/jayson...

2 years, 8 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Elizabeth Eshelman Verified

awww ... i love me some jayson

2 years, 8 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )