This is one of those CDs that keeps getting better the more I listen to it. With a few judiciously placed exceptions, most songs here are slow, and their virtues - evocative lyrics, rich and textured arrangements, and Hubbard's singing - are the sort whose quality becomes more apparent with familiarity. Hubbard's last recording, The Slide Project from 1997, focused more clearly on guitar-pop songcraft, and so it's a bit of a surprise to find him here exploring the sort of slower, quieter territory closer to the aching melancholy of Red House Painters. The payoff, if slightly delayed, is much richer. Hubbard's ear for melody hasn't deserted him, so tracks like "Wonderful Pain" and "The Last American Hero" feature the kind of choruses that drive the rest of the song home. The two most impressive things about this recording, though, are its arrangements and Hubbard's singing. Hubbard fills his musical canvas with a painterly array of instruments, with guitarists Will Kimbrough and Clay Jones using a wide variety of tones, textures, and approaches to their instruments. Chuck Hatcher and a handful of other musicians, including Hubbard and jack-of-all-trades Peter Holsapple, play keyboards, including piano, organ, mellotron, clavinet, Wurlitzer, and Casio. A few tracks feature violin and cello or dulcimer, and the toy shop is raided for unusual sounds like "omnichord knobs," "microcassette," "yak bak," "polaroid," and "olympus stylus." Hubbard, Jones (who also produced), and engineer David McCain deserve credit for arranging and recording all these instruments masterfully to avoid clutter: in fact, several tracks drop back to only one or two instruments, piano or acoustic guitar, and Hubbard's singing. And it's his voice - a quavery, nasal instrument with a slight twang - which, imperfect instrument though it is, fits the sound and feel of these songs like a first-class character actor fills his role and embodies the songs emotionally in a way that a more handsome vehicle could never do. Why Men Fail is another CD that, while taking full advantage of all the resources a recording studio can offer, rests finally upon the strength and character of a man singing a set of exquisitely crafted songs. The CD's title, applied to its songs, can only be ironic, as this is one of the better CDs of 2001.

Artist
Album Title
Song Title