review: The Vanity Project
Fans of Barenaked Ladies have known Stephen Duffy's name for a while. The English singer-songwriter's entry in the All Music Guide calls him the Pete Best of the 80's - he was a founding member of Duran Duran who left the band before they became stars. BNL frontman Steven Page discovered his solo work at 15 and sent him a fan letter. A correspondence ensued and evolved into a working relationship. Duffy co-wrote four songs with Page on BNL's 1994 sophomore release Maybe You Should Drive and contributed to each album through 2000's Maroon. Their collaborations include three singles ("Jane," "Alternative Girlfriend," "Call and Answer") and are characterized by strong pop hooks, smart wordplay, and a dark lyrical edge.
The Vanity Project's self-titled debut consists of songs that Page and Duffy worked on together from 1999 to 2004. The two play almost everything, with the exception of some keys and live drums on a couple of tracks. The traits that characterize their BNL work are here in spades. These cuts range from hard-driving rock ("Hit and Run") to darkly stripped-down acoustic guitar ("By the Roadside") and everywhere in between. Strong guitar work is omnipresent, and there's gorgeous harmonica on a couple of tracks. Lyrically, there's a great deal of interplay between relationship issues and current events, often blending seamlessly into a cohesive whole. With due respect to BNL, and especially Ed Robertson, this is some of Page's best work in years. The album's standout is "Everything's the Same," a sprawling six-minute opus whose lyrics exemplify that theme of romance and politics, intertwining in discontent. Great driving bass in places and a 90-second outro of Page repeatedly droning "everything's the same" under a guitar solo, finally ending with a few seconds of poet Ezra Pound reading from one of his Cantos. It's weirdly cool.
Page hopes to collaborate with others under this name in the future. I'm hopeful, too - The Vanity Project is anything but.
Clips available at www.vanity-project.com.
The Vanity Project's self-titled debut consists of songs that Page and Duffy worked on together from 1999 to 2004. The two play almost everything, with the exception of some keys and live drums on a couple of tracks. The traits that characterize their BNL work are here in spades. These cuts range from hard-driving rock ("Hit and Run") to darkly stripped-down acoustic guitar ("By the Roadside") and everywhere in between. Strong guitar work is omnipresent, and there's gorgeous harmonica on a couple of tracks. Lyrically, there's a great deal of interplay between relationship issues and current events, often blending seamlessly into a cohesive whole. With due respect to BNL, and especially Ed Robertson, this is some of Page's best work in years. The album's standout is "Everything's the Same," a sprawling six-minute opus whose lyrics exemplify that theme of romance and politics, intertwining in discontent. Great driving bass in places and a 90-second outro of Page repeatedly droning "everything's the same" under a guitar solo, finally ending with a few seconds of poet Ezra Pound reading from one of his Cantos. It's weirdly cool.
Page hopes to collaborate with others under this name in the future. I'm hopeful, too - The Vanity Project is anything but.
Clips available at www.vanity-project.com.
posted at 12:06 a.m.
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