Disco de Guster: “Easy Wonderful”

Guster has been calmly making what amounts to the same pop-rock-with-an-unfair-ear-for-hooks since 1999's classic Lost and Gone Forever, with varying degrees of success. I've gotten older, and Guster's fans have definitely gotten older - I recently attended a show where the majority of the audience was way past college and hovering around the black hole of their 30s - but Guster have pretty much stayed exactly the same, and it doesn't seem to mean a thing. Maybe that's why they're one of the few bands from my high school days that have yet to truly disappoint me.

Now the critical part of me finds plenty to dislike with this, their sixth album. It's absolutely nonthreatening - if I had to compare Easy Wonderful to a living thing, it'd be a koala bear, cuddly and furry with a strict vegetarian diet. Drummer Brian Rosenworcel's brilliant hand drumming, which defined the band's early sound and still makes their live shows one of my favorites, has been, by and large, neutered to a standard sticks-and-pedals kit. Adam Gardner's lovely baritone is now reserved strictly for backing vocals, and singer Ryan Miller shows an increasing love for saccharine lyrics and chintzy sentiments that would best be left in a Hallmark card. In other words, it's the same gradual progression towards "dad-rock" that Ganging Up On The Sun hinted at, but with one slight addendum: Guster is still churning out some of the best melodies of their career.

It's why I know that Guster will always be the security blanket of my musical existence when they keep tossing out effortless gems like unreasonably catchy first single "Do You Love Me." Hell, any band that can use song titles like that or "Bad Bad World" or (God help us) "This Is How It Feels To Have A Broken Heart" and make me immediately forgive them when that melody hits has my respect. Guster have been doing this a long time, and occasionally it shows, but I can't think of another band who, song-for-song, keep coming up with choruses and hooks that stay in my head when other, more "challenging" albums gather dust until I have to write my end-of-year lists. There's been better songs this year, but few more likely to have me singing along in my highest pitch than "That's No Way To Heaven" and fewer still with the potential to kick around my skull for weeks like "Do You Want," or "Architects and Engineers," or virtually everything else here. There's nothing more groundbreaking here than some well-placed banjo twang, and Easy Wonderful hasn't made me think or made me call up a friend late at night caught in some ten-minute-plus audio brilliance. This is just guitars, bass, drums, and harmonies, and it's absolutely, relentlessly gorgeous. If Guster can grow old and still sound so cheerful, maybe everything won't be so drab after all.

Guster's "Easy Wonderful" is filled with sunny, friendly, well-crafted rocky pop wall to wall. These guys have never sounded more joyful and in-sync - the album's title is perfectly chosen.

The lyrics all land perfectly, without a missing or superfluous syllable sticking its tongue out. This is a set of peaceful, fun-loving tunes that consistently catch hold and deliver high entertainment value. The band clearly labored intensively over the perfect execution of each track, which shows in the results.

"On the Ocean" sounds breezy, tropical and Beach Boys-like, both in its lyrics and its sonic atmosphere. "Do You Love Me" is peppy, full of handclaps and boundlessly sweet - a tune with the easy pep and energy of those that blare out of jukeboxes in a 50's-style diners. The tongue-in-cheek "This Could All Be Yours," an astute exercise in irony, is just as impressive with its sing-along chorus and spirited chanting.

Even the inventive, storytelling "Stay with Me Jesus," bristles with melodic verve and excitement, with intriguingly used synthesizers and harmonies. The results are pop music genius, or at least something like it. The bouncy "Jesus and Mary" and "That's No Way to Get to Heaven," which works in its acoustic sparseness, continue Christian themes. The guys are not proselytizing or even really preaching, but have clearly turned to religion for a source of inspiration from which to bounce ideas.

The infectious spirit that energizes the album does not cease. Despite its piercing lyrics of unrequited love, "This Is How It Feels to Have a Broken Heart" percolates with choppy, kinetic arrangements and stylings that let it glitter and glean with a sunny pop sheen. The piano-driven "Bad Bad World" follows in suit, which stands tall with its juicy, widescreen melody and cliched - yet welcome - yearning for peace and tranquility.

The same goes for "What You Call Love," which, despite its lyrical seriousness, sounds ready for a Hawaiian beachside concert, complete with lush, tropical-sounding guitars and Mariachi-style interjections.

This is a fall album that should have been released in summer.

The album ends strongly with the trippy, techno-infused "Do What You Want."

College frat houses aside, Guster has had a difficult time finding the proper venue. Neither mainstream listeners nor critics have much knowledge or love for the band. That matters little, though, since these guys know their strengths and weaknesses and put in the time in the studio and on stage to focus the former and minimize the latter, keeping their word-of-mouth fan base satisfied with compelling, sharply-executed music.

"Easy Wonderful" overflows with pop music so upbeat, friendly and optimistic - and strong - that it could easily frighten away humorless bureaucrats, unscrupulous businessmen and Anna Wintour. Fine enough reasons indeed to give it a listen.

This is interesting in as much as Guster has recorded what amounts to a straight up pop album. It's light and breezy, non-confrontational, loaded with catchy tunes and pristine production, and super harmonies. It's also, unfortunately, utterly unmemorable.

"Easy Wonderful" is conventional pop without any songs that dig into your brain and stay there. I've been living with the CD for a couple of weeks, and other than the "Do You Love Me" and the banjo infused "Hercules," I can't really remember what the songs are all about. If you're setting out to right breezy, infectious pop, there has to be a sticking point somewhere, and "Easy Wonderful" has no quills.

That's not to say Guster has lost their skills. There's a scathingly funny indictment of blind faith on "Stay With Me Jesus," and the previous mentioned "Hercules" has the sneak attack of the banjo break. The closer, "Do What You Want," takes a skip away from the album's overall sound for some synths and electronics, which at least ends "Easy Wonderful" on a non-homogeneous note. However, Guster took the easy road here, and have delivered an album that is merely average.

I've heard complaints that this album either doesn't sound enough like old Guster or that it sounds too much like what Guster always does.

In my opinion it doesn't sound like old Guster, but I don't think that's a bad thing. I think they've progressed and changed musically on each album, and that's something that I appreciate since who wants to listen to exactly the same thing each time.

"Do You Love Me" really is ridiculously catchy, and I like the more folky, acoustic sound of "Stay With Me Jesus" and "Hercules". I do wish they had used Adam more, though he does sing lead on "Jonah" an extra track on the Deluxe version of the album.

To those who think Guster has found religion or Christianity, I think they're missing the point. Adam, Brian, and Ryan are all Jewish for one - and (quoting from the link below) "Although some of their songs contain religious imagery (songwriter and lead singer Ryan Miller has a religious studies degree), these certainly aren't worship songs. On the contrary, their song "Two at a Time" [from a past album] is a satiric take on the Noah's Ark story, highlighting the barbarity in a tale that's often taught to children (and the point is accented by a group of children joining in the singing during parts of the song)."

And "Stay With Me Jesus", if listen more closely, is meant ironically. And the band has even said as much. It's not a Christian praise song at all.

Here's the link that discusses it:

[...]

I'm not trying to promote religion or atheism by posting the link - but I've noticed a bunch of reviews that seem like they are wondering why the band is suddenly writing Christian songs. And the answer is, they're not. As the band said on twitter, "listen harder?".

Anyway - I really do like the new album. I hope it won't be 4 years before the next one!

I have been a Guster fan for a long time. I have all of there albums and have seen them in concert several times, most recently was a really cool acoustic set in San Francisco. At first I didn't really like the album that much. I thought it was just ok, but now it has grown into one of my favorite albums. If you haven't listened to Ganging Up on the Sun, Keep It Together, Lost and Gone Forever or Parachute then you NEED to check those albums out!