Rachel Yamagata - 'Happenstance' (Private) Released 16/05/05

The proliferation of talentless, dancing, miming pop muppets has undermined music so much that we’re supposed to be grateful when artists trumpet that they ‘write all my own music’ and know how to find their way around a Fender. Which is why Rachel Yamagata, a 26-year-old “multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter,” is offered as a promising prospect. However, as this album proves, multi instrumentalism does not a good album make!

Referring us to a dictionary reference, “happenstance: happen + circumstance; a circumstance especially that is due to chance,” the press release trills just how this collection of petted-lip love songs acquired its moniker – in case we were interested. Unfortunately, after a laborious listen Gigwise wishes this self-styled serendipitous undertaking had never, well, been undertaken!

It meanders from optimistically dreamy, to positively soporific. Granted, it does have moments of beautifully crafted arrangement with swathing strings and rich piano textures, and there are (a few) catchy, upbeat moments most notably on ‘I Want You’ with its bursts of brass and bounce along beat, but what starts off as a smoky, smouldering voice from Yamagata, peters out into the listless, charred remains of someone that’s been wronged in love over, and over, and over again. Heard it!

Yamagata has toured with acts as diverse as Gomez (we can’t imagine this) Air and Damien Rice. Unfortunately diversity isn’t associated with this album, whose forlorn laments sound like a nod to every Dawson’s Creek disco ever screened…and repeated! Depressing.