JULY 2008 ONLINE EDITORIALS

Stuart Davis - Something Simple

By Nathan Harper

Identified as a singer/songwriter, recent Front Range transplant Stuart Davis might be better billed as a hook merchant. In each of the 12 songs on Something Simple Davis trades on the skills he garnered recording his extensive back catalog with the ease of his couplets, his song’s tight pop structure, but more than anything else, the way he sells his choruses. He lives in his choruses, or at least he sounds most at home in them, his voice is most expressive and convincing when he’s in the hook.

Despite its name, Something Simple strives to cover a lot of territory, from the spiritual to the physical, and bodied in this music are myriad styles ranging from straight ahead guitar tracks to the syncopated electric stomp of “Deity Freak.” The album feels a bit overextended, using synthesizers to recreate strings and other instruments, when using the actual instruments would have improved the record’s sound.

As a lyricist Davis delivers catchy lines, but the songs feel lacking in spontaneity and everything is very polished, almost to the point of glossing over the liveliness that the artist seems to possess. Some of his best lines can be found on “Sugar Bullets,” however the comparison he makes in that song, that he’s both dangerous but harmlessly sweet, sets the tone for an album that sometimes finds itself mixing messages. The idea of a removed God in the sky is ridiculed, but a message from the sun from a remote African village is embraced, the overall effect leaving the listener both nodding their head and shrugging their shoulders.