Film @ Eleven
Tom Sheehan
19 North Records
2000
14 tracks
How can success be measured? By any number of standards, Tom Sheehan's Film @ Eleven is a highly successful collection of songs. A studio recording featuring the multi-instrumental talents of only three musicians [Sheehan plus David Cullen and Bill Bower], the music has a full orchestral sound. The production is clean and impressive. The songs have a driven pop-rock energy that will please a good cross section of the listening audience. The lyrics are well-written technically and several have the feel of modern poetry. Looking at the apparent goals of the artist, however, I believe this release fails.
By his own accomplished skills at writing, performing, and production and perhaps influenced by his profession as an advertising executive, Tom Sheehan has created a set of polished songs with a pure pop sensibility. The words become part of the overall composition. Sheehan's voice blends into the mix and what it's saying becomes a blur and then lost. Sheehan undercuts his own message until it falls into the music and disappears.
In his promotional materials, Sheehan is described as "the latest to fuse social commentary and observation with rock and roll" and suggests that he is the Oliver Stone of rock and roll. The promo kit includes a listing of all the songs, describing the dark "adult" content of many of his lyrics. In these materials, Sheehan is placed in a line of writers of musical social commentary going back to Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie. It seems clear that Sheehan views himself as that sort of political songwriter. Perhaps he is. However, he has hid his political light 'neath a bushel of shimmering pop sensibility, where it may never be noticed.
If a song has a serious social message, and I believe many of Sheehan's do, then that message should be clear at the outset. I should not need separate explanations in order to know that there is a message. In the case of these songs, I suspect most and maybe all listeners will not get the underlying message. If there is a Guthrie or Dylan present here, he is not to be heard behind this slick, sequinned production.
So, if I don't hear folk-rock social commentary in Film @ Eleven, what is it that I do hear?
In at least one song, I hear Franky Vallee. I hear soft pop reflections of artists like Canadians Dan Hill and Bryan Adams. Some of the orchestration brings to mind Phil Collins and, in its lushness, Celine Dionne. In places, I hear Dire Straits or perhaps some of the softer-edged roots rockers like John Mellenkamp. On a couple of songs, I think I hear a Leonard Cohen influence. This is soft music, the sort of middle-of-the road pop that hits radio's afternoon drive time.
If the music is soft, so are the lyrics. While most of these lyrics may properly be classified as social commentary, they are not in any true sense songs of protest. Rather, as the title of this releases suggests, they are descriptive, like the news reporter standing outside the action and describing it to hometown living rooms. The verses are well written and often poetic, but there's no sense of outrage in the words, only the objectivity of a photograph.
Like the late-night news, the subject matter of Sheehan's songs is wide-ranging. They cover drug addiction, political coup's, shattered relationships, 900 telephone services, the tragedy at Columbine, transvestites and cross-dressers, rape, and the generation gap. On a more positive note, two of the songs, including a love song written for his wife, celebrate the potentials of love after forty years old.
Perhaps it should be left to the young and the downtrodden to protest. Perhaps it should be left to the news-media to do the commentary. Perhaps not. If, however, Tom Sheehan was trying to do either, then I think he has missed his calling. His music belongs in a much more conservative, dare we say establishment, realm.
Sheehan is an exceptional pop-stylist. His words and his music are polished and accomplished. Rather than protest, his talent seems to lean heavily toward the domain of the pop and rock standards, of love songs and romantic themes. Lyrics along those lines will make an ideal match to his musical treatments. Taken on the whole, Film @ Eleven is well-written, well-performed and well-produced. I look forward to hearing some of these songs on the radio.
Anyone interested in learning more about Tom Sheehan and his music [and, in the process, viewing one of the best designed artist websites I've seen in a long time] can visit www.19north.com.|
Since about February 14, 2004, |
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