Mike Bones - 'A Fool For Everyone' (The Social Registry) Released 02/02/09

Mike Bones (aka NY indie scenester Mike Strallow) delivers his second LP 'A Fool For Everyone' with results none too dissimilar to his debut “The Sky Behind the Sea”… mixed.

My initial concern with this CD was that coming in at just under 35mins I still found it a fairly laborious task. I was aware of myself watching the track counter, looking at the lyrics trying to estimate how close to the end the song might be and generally toying with the revolting case in my hand (more about that later). After the first track the primary excitement of putting in any new CD, and the curiosity of not having heard much solo work of Bones’ faded quickly. His delivery seems flat and a lack of flair for a good melody becomes apparent, leaving him sounding like a man failing to emulate his heroes, namely Dylan, Verlaine and Cohen.

Throughout the album minimalistic verses make way for choruses and bridges layered with strings, horns or simply the impressive fret styles of Mike himself – let’s not forget he was primarily a guitarist. Many critics seem to focus on how great it is to see him put guitar playing to one side to let his song-writing and lyrics shine through. Unfortunately, I’m not quite sure there is sufficient skill there to pull it off. The sparse sections of the album aren’t held up by the melodies or the lyrics and the evolution of the complexities of some of the arrangements too often seems pompous and self-indulgent.

Lyrically, 'A Fool For Everyone', has a few redeeming moments but generally seems well worn in terms of subject and style. Bones seems to fall short on lines that could have been delivered with genuine conviction by stronger vocalists, such as his aforementioned heroes. His phrasing throughout becomes increasingly irritating - imagine Athlete’s Joel Pott with an NY accent and his slightly tonally challenged approach fails to evoke the fondness that artists such as Stephen Malkmus can.