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Issue #101
Dec.
'07
The Sophomore Slump.
It’s universally
acknowledged, well known, and definitely
not an urban legend. Notoriously rearing its ugly head mostly in the
music
world, where the 2nd LP is usually the most
scrutinized of any
record a band can release. It has crushed as many careers as it has
made; it
leads to too many questionable decisions, second thoughts, and
worthless
gambles. There are as many different ways to approach LP number 2 as
there are
artists making them, and there is no one proven method to avoid or
overcome the
(historically insignificant) monkey-on-the-back that it has come to
represent.
In 2003, the bon mots,
out of Chicago, IL,
rode the songwriting of Eric Chial
and Mike Coy to heavy accolades for
their debut CD “le main drag.”
Appearing on many a year-end “Best of…”
list, as well as ink in such notable
magazines as SPIN, and capturing the 2003 “IndepenDisc of the Year”
award, it
seemed that the bon mots were poised to make a run at this crazy music
industry.
Four years later we have forty days and forty
nights with the bon mots, except word has it
that this is not the bands 2nd LP –
supposedly the 2nd LP
did not live up to the bon mots
expectations/standards, so they scrapped it and started anew.
The Sophomore Slump?
Could the bon
mots
have buried it along with the scrapped attempt of LP number two? Could
this
have been the ultimate solution? I don’t think
we’ll ever be able to answer
that question, but more importantly, the question that can be answered
is: Is the bon mots follow-up
record a worthy
successor to their 1st triumph? A resounding yes
would be the
correct answer.
While le main
drag
focused on the downers that life served up, 40 days stretches out Coy
and
Chial’s uncanny abilities to write intelligent lyrics as
complex and
significant as Elvis Costello, Squeeze’s Difford/Tilbrook,
Ray Davies (The
Kinks), and even Andy Partridge
of XTC, and marry them to tight, hook-filled compositions that breathe
the late
70s punk-New Wave style with a modern studio bent that accentuates a
60s garage
sensibility, which in turn, looks at matters that convey a more mature
appreciation for subjects as far reaching as common relationships,
classical
literature, global consciousness, and even siring a new generation.
With keyboard extraordinaire Chris Frantisak and drummer Neal
Ostrovsky rounding out the foursome (both Chial & Coy
cover the vocals,
guitar & bass), the bon mots
deliver a LP of addicting quality. You’ll find yourself
humming bridges, hooks,
and runs, whistling melodies, and singing choruses and lyric couplings
outright. These songs have an uncanny ability of working their way into
your
brain to a point of subconscious connections heretofore only found on
heavily
commercialized Top 40 (and believe it or not, that’s a good
thing).
Although, tell me what Top 40 band today
can pen these
lyrical gems of perfection:
“Through the long fell
length of the light” (on her telephone)
“Just as the southern front crashes
headlong into the northern clipper
We’ll drown with open mouths gazing up at the sky in awe and
cursing the rain.”
(Reasons,
Dear – in which this verse is recited
during an interlude bridge that
thrusts the song “headlong” into a swirling
direction [and awesome guitar lead]
that punches up and through everything the
bon mots are laying on us).
And, this AAB, AAB rhyme scheme that is nothing short of
genius;
“Lily oh Lily /
Forgive me I’m really / Not usually so far above /
Lily oh Lily / Forgive
me I’m silly / In Love” (Lily).
Multiply those a dozen times over and
you’ll be in lyrical
heaven for many more than 40 days and nights. Capitalizing once again
on the
natural interplay and cohesion of Coy and Chail’s different,
yet parallel,
songwriting styles, the bon mots
repeat the odd song (Chail), even song (Coy) line up that worked
wondrously on
the first CD. This allows Chail’s semi-dark, ultra-serious,
neo-goth,
garage-pop tunes to bounce off Coy’s uplifting,
brightly-fashioned, next-wave,
pop to create an ear-grasping, ying and yang ride of musical emotion.
The Sophmore Slump?
You’ll have to look elsewhere
to find it. This time around the bon mots
give us 40 days and 40
nights of upper-class, elder-statesman music aimed at laying waste to
an
experienced (?) condition all too real in an industry of
under-achieving
wannabees. Let that be the lesson learned here. Now that the sophomore
slump
has been vanquished, we hope that it will not be another 4 years (or 2
LPs)
before we get to hear the bon mots
commercial break through.
forty days and forty
nights with the bon mots
by the
Bon Mots
is available now for: $9.98 + s/h*
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