RIYL: Jack Johnson, Jason Mraz, Ben Kweller
Not everyone quite gets the laid-back shuffle of acoustic-geetar-totin’ beach poets like Jack Johnson or zippity-bippity wordplay specialists like Jason Mraz, but that doesn’t stop them from selling tons of records and playing sold-out venues, does it? Tom Luce and his decade-old San Francisco-based band fit in that mold, and certainly could, with a bit of luck, take their mid- and up-tempo numbers to the masses, churning out the feel-good platters for the our beloved generation of peace-lovin’, hemp-wearin’, endless summer-celebratin’ kiddies to shake their tushies to year-round.
It’d be a shame, though, if his band’s exercises in featherweight groovin’ wound up overshadowing its true strengths. As we hear in this odds-and-sods acoustic EP, Luce (the band) can certainly build a solid backdrop for the wry observations and lovelorn sentiments in its songs. Folks outside the Bay Area might remember the band for the minor hit “Good Day,” which gets a cool walk-through here (though I miss the horns that punctuated the original). “Won’t Change a Thing” and the title track likewise get mid-tempo workouts, but it’s difficult to put a finger on what makes the performances sound so perfunctory.
That difficulty ends when one cues up the ballads on the EP, and a fuller, better-rounded Luce merges. Take the piano ballad-style reworking of the band’s 2002 track “Corner of the World.” On the original, Luce’s moving observations of life passing by get lost in a heavy-handed rock arrangement; left with just Tom Luce’s voice and bare but sympathetic accompaniment, the power of the lyrics comes to the fore. Same goes for “Willing to Try,” in which the band slowly builds behind a foundation of bare acoustic guitar, all serving the exquisite melody and words. The harmonies that lift “After Tomorrow” highlight the hopefulness of the lyric, and the slide guitar that fades in the outro is a perfect farewell.
The ballads on The Year We’ll Have make it worth owning (check out the Amazon link below or take the band up on its “pay what you want” offer, on its Web site). If Luce can play off the strengths they display there, they could be a household name one of these days. (Luce 2010)
Luce’s Myspace Page
Click here to buy The Year We’ll Have from Amazon.
