Pajo

by

Pajo

Edit

The first thing you will hear about when you read a review anywhere else on this record, is how it sounds like Elliott Smith. So, I figured that this review needed to be different than...oh wait, well too late now. Anyway, yes this record is reminiscant of Elliott Smith, especially Either/Or, and it is also reminiscant of Simon & Garfunkel, Nick Drake, Bill Fey, Tim Buckley, Scott Walker, Kings of Convenience...hell every album that has a guy with an acoustic guitar and voice. However, I don't think that making a simple comparison to another artist does this record justice, but it is unavoidable. I have been a fan of David Pajo for quite sometime and always felt that he was just short of making a record like this. Fans of his Papa M records will not be disappointed with this. Although the recording is low-fi, the song structure does not suffer. In fact, the simplicity often brings the melody up to the surface on which the instrumentation quietly and beautifully floats. This album does something that most albums try and few are able to do, it maintains a mood. Somewhere in each of these songs is the ghost of Simon & Garfunkels' "Bookends". This is not a reinvention of the wheel, nor is it a reinvention of an artist, but it is a fine addition to a genre that was critically wounded almost two years ago with the loss of one of it's finest. I don't really believe in star ratings, but if giving this a 5 will influence someone to purchase this record, then what does it matter. This is a great record, easily one of the best of 2005.