Anders Parker – Skyscraper Crow
Anders Parker - Skyscraper Crow
With Skyscraper Crow, Anders Parker returns with a double album of his first new material released in three years. At 20 songs this is seemingly a lot to bite off, but the total running time is just shy of 70 minutes, which would have fit onto one CD. The twist here, and probably the surprise for those familiar with Parker from his previous work under his own name and in his alt-country band Varnaline, is that the albums are divided conceptually by genre. Crow is solo acoustic, while Skyscraper is electronic pop, created only with vocals, a MIDI keyboard, and Parker’s Powerbook. A strange coupling indeed, but Parker is said to have still two other genre-specific, unreleased full-lengths in the can: one with a loud rock band and another one composed of improvised guitar soundscapes. While there might be some merit to the idea that Parker should have chosen the best of all of this material and put out one strong, eclectic album, this isn’t simply a division of a bunch of songs along genre lines. Each genre division also represents a different time period where Parker was writing in a particular idiom, with Skyscraper being written and recorded in New York and reflecting city life, and Crow being written and recorded later, after a move to Vermont. Aside from Parker’s melodic sense and beautifully versatile vocals, there is no seepage between the two, and it’s good news that for the most part the division isn’t distracting. These are both undeniably Anders Parkers albums first and foremost. One just happens to be electronic while the other is acoustic.
So how does Parker fare with electronic pop? First off, let’s just say this is an electronic record, not necessarily a pop record. There are actually more brooding rumblers than sharp and peppy numbers. Though recorded on computer generated instruments, these tracks are composed more like folk rock songs, and are not fussily filled with complex rhythms and left-field futuristic sounds and filters. If anything, the sounds harken back much further in the past. The electronic bass line on opener “Calling Out to You” sounds akin to the bass instrument used on 80’s hit “Let’s Hear It For the Boy” and the keyboard on “Infinite (Us)” sounds like the 80’s celebrity singalong “Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time”. While those two tracks and “So Far” have a certain Postal Service-ness about them, the real gems here are the dark and dense pensive tracks like “Glass & Mirror” and “Long Way Home” that play out more like slow hymns or eulogies. There is a palpable sense of sadness, loss, and emotional vulnerability running throughout this work, with architectural metaphors, thoughts of home, urban moodiness, and September 11th recurring as themes throughout. Perhaps the most breathtaking moment on the album is when Parker rips off a distorted keyboard run 2/3 through the otherwise morose “Slow Clouds”, cueing a deserved emotional catharsis after a lot of insular reflection. The line that connects this with his older work in Varnaline is his great ear for texture and the application of sound to create atmospheres of hugeness. While Varnaline sometimes sounded like a band fronted by a bunch of Paul Bunyons, Skyscraper (despite its title) eschews the vertical for a more wide-berth, horizontal feel.
Released as the second side, Crow brings Parker back into more familiar acoustic, singer-songwriter territory, though his songs have never been so simple and unadorned. It is just him and an acoustic guitar, with a few keyboard or bass overdubs and harmony vocals filling things out. It furthers the somber melancholy of Skyscraper, though these songs sound a little more generally interpersonal than philosophically autobiographical. Though I’m sure it won’t be the first time Parker’s work has been compared to Jeff Tweedy’s, as a point of reference these tracks share a certain something with “How to Fight Loneliness” from Wilco’s Summer Teeth, especially on “72nd St. Horses” and “You Moved Me”. Luckily, Parker’s voice has both greater range and more expressiveness than Tweedy’s. It sounds great high and low and at all points between, and it carries Crow more than it does Skyscraper. All the tracks on the second album are very consistent, so it feels difficult to single out any for special mention. On the other side of that coin, this consistency, a bit of a by-product of the genre-based recording and release strategy, can also feel like a sameness which weighs Crow down slightly. But if you’re in the mood for some melodic but moody solo acoustic songs, they don’t get a whole lot better than this.
While it may be initially jarring to hear someone so aligned with folk-based rock music composing with a computer, Skyscraper is good enough to make you forget that you’re listening to an artist playing outside of the rules he’s established for himself, and I look forward to hearing Parker release more work in this vein. The more expected success on the acoustic side, Crow, whets my appetite for some more traditional songs with full band arrangements, so my anticipation is up for this rumored full band record. But what this double album really proves is that we should look forward to and listen to more of Anders Parker’s music, whatever vein he chooses to create in.
