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A couple weeks ago, I worked with a friend of mine on a mix
tape for my birthday party. We slipped into total High
Fidelity mode, analyzing each selection (Does it flow
well enough from the last song? Will people like it? Is
it rockin’ enough for a party?). So, in my little world,
it’s a pretty big deal that a song by Shellito (whose
CD I’d recently received for review) made it onto the mix
between The Smiths’ “Ask” and James’ “Laid.”
Ingredients’ opening track, “Orange or Green”, made
the cut, with its twinkling guitar, “a-ha-ha-ha” chorus and
gentle harmonies. We wanted something quirky and slower,
something that would lull our guests slightly but maintain
the party’s momentum, after a crowd favorite and before we
hit them with one of our favorite party songs ever.
Shellito (as in lead Mike Shellito, who makes the
music along with Jeff Tanner and a slew of guests)
create lo-fi acoustic guitar-based rock. The pair has a knack
for making complicated simple songs, and their second offering
is a relaxed, Sunday afternoon kind of album.
Though they’re based in Philadelphia, Shellito and Tanner
packed up their instruments and took over a cabin in South
Carolina, where they wrote the self-produced and -engineered
album. The result is a light-handed twee album that looks
back to 60s pop like Simon & Garfunkel as often
as it explores more experimental contemporary indie pop like
Belle & Sebastian. (On “Smart People” especially,
the singer sounds a lot like Stuart Murdoch, and the
cascading instrumentals have a B&S quality.)
The lyrics are an opportunity for word-play and smart turns
of phrase, rather than coherent narratives. Take “Virgo Torpedo”’s
Gertrude Stein-ish juxtapositions: The bio Ohio
/ a duo with you know who / a 4.0 espresso / nabisco buono
/ Shellito.” The lyrics are especially stellar on the
tender and non-cliched love song “Happy,” with its catalogue
of sweet and mundane shared activities (kissing in the shower”;
“bowling after midnight).
It’s also the sort of music that can fade into the background,
an idea played with on the closing track. (“I don’t care
about beautiful music / or writing a song with something to
say / nobody listens especially lately / especially me with
nothing to say / I’m tired, I’m tired, I’m tired / and I think
you are too.”). A talking crowd increasingly drowns out and
overwhelms the simple song, until the music is completely
eclipsed.
If Shellito keeps making albums this clever, maybe we should
be listening.
— Jennifer Conrad
Track List:
- Orange or Green
- Smart People
- Jim
- Lima
- Shung
- All Right
- Human
- You Really Really Like Me
- Virgo Torpedo
- Happy
- Norma
- Tired
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