Nothing Painted Blue - Taste the Flavor
(2005 - Shrimper Records)
Let's not split hairs, Nothing Painted Blue is my favorite band of all time. I could easily kick out a long form essay on why Franklin Bruno is the most criminally underrated songwriter of the last couple decades. He's been described as witty, brainy, literary, scholarly, mathy, jaded, playfully morbid, hopelessly romantic and relentlessly catchy. In addition to his work with NPB he's recorded several solo albums, been in The Extra Glenns with John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats and been the subject of a tribute album by Jenny Toomey. None of the other stuff, good as it may be, has ever quite reached the heights of the band proper.
The poshumous Taste the Flavor is arguably NPB's sixth album, although technically it's the fifth. Rarities compilations don't count for us geeks. On it, we get glimpses and nods to the band's various stages and incarnations. There's the noisely impetuous, Minutemen inspired, power pop of the early days with songs like "Self-contained" and "Striver", all the way to the more mature subtlety of "Dry Spell" or "Longer Leash". Through it all the band reenforces its command of all things catchy with a flair for jaded empathy. With this release, more than any other since the early days, the emphasis is on immediacy and performance rather than polish and refined overdubs.
The thing about Bruno's lyrics, brainy though they may be, is that they never get in the way of the song. If anything the words enhance the music. He doesn't just jam a bunch of overly long words or far-flung referrences in just for the hell of it. Instead he has a knack for twisting a few simple words, and even goofily simple rhymes into complex metaphors about unrequited love, frustration and fatalistic resign without ever actually sounding depressed. Instead of sounding like they're trying to be clever, they just ARE clever while also being unapologetically sincere and always keeping the listener emotionally engaged.
On one hand I'm kind of sad that this will be the last official NPB album. On the other hand I never really expected it to come out. It has been over seven years since their last release. All in all it makes for a fine curtain call in a near flawless career.
To hear song snippets go here!
