Colin Caulfield can cover a song as well as anyone — his breadth of adaptations dot YouTube like colors in a Seurat painting, vibrant and warm. Whether it be David Bowie, Panda Bear, Ariel Pink or The Beatles, Caulfield uses his acoustic charms to mold these familiar tunes into fresh celebrations.
But while Caulfield forges originality from the songs of others, he struggles to locate a definable voice when it comes to his own compositions. In Vol. 1, an album created under the guise of Young Man, Caulfield has created a record that is neither memorable nor remarkable but sonically has an aesthetic appeal. Call it lush background music.
Caulfield’s previous work – the EP Boy and LP Ideas of Distance – details an artist working through the trials of childhood and relationships in an exploring yet casual manner. Vol. 1 sees a bolder Caulfield – he has a full band in tow for this one – but there remains a deliberate tinkering to the tracks whose titles (“Thoughts”, “By and By”, “Wandering”) share this insouciance.
“Heading” opens the album with a quiet climb of strumming guitars and echoed dreamscapes as Caulfield waits a minute before uttering a note. His 20 seconds of lyrics devolve into a cinematic free-for-all of hi-hats and beeps only to move swiftly into “Thoughts,” which now and forever should be the Jack Handey theme song for its staged drama that ends up a bit contrived.
“Do” proves to be one of Vol. 1‘s stronger efforts, Caulfield’s bouncy lyrics belie steady guitar strums and a plinking piano for the song’s first three minutes. In an odd twist, the final minute becomes one-part hoedown, one-part jam out in short enough time frame to make it interesting.
But the following “Fate” labors in territory better owned by Matt Pond PA, while the seven-minute “21” is a noisy venture with no real pivot. Had the song started near the four-minute mark it would be album’s most focused track instead of the amalgam of notes it became.
The album-ending “Directions” is pleasant enough, though this too is space better trodden by others (we’re in full-on Belle and Sebastian land here, who would never let this go on for nearly eight minutes). “Directions” carries the theme held by a handful of songs – intermittent lyrics surrounded by various bits of instrumental play. The only direction this song contains is in the title.
Vol. 1 is not a bad album, but there’s nothing gallant about it. It makes for nice musical fodder at your local Starbucks, more grande than grand.
