[.ca] Insignifcance

From Amazon.com:
Self-described "cheerful misanthrope" Jim O'Rourke was schooled in the trenches of experimentalism and high-headed music theory, making music on computers before it was fashionable to do so. Since the late '90s, he's emerged as an all-star producer and sideman (serving as Sonic Youth's bassist on several tours) as well as a relatively prolific solo artist. Not to say that Jeff Tweedy of Wilco's involvement this time around (O'Rourke produced Wilco's 2002 release, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot) doesn't have anything to do with the sheer pop success/excess of Insignificance. Playing Robert Quine or Richard Lloyd to O'Rourke's warped Lou Reed/Matthew Sweet, Tweedy adds crunchy yet light guitar tones on the radio-ready opener, "All Downhill from Here," which is driven home by "woo-hoos" and a happy-go-lucky climax. Oddly enough, this track is a roots-rock rave-up recalling, at least in spirit, Rick Derringer's hit "Rock & Roll Hoochie Koo" or Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama." Add O'Rourke's formula of juxtaposing pleasant streams and shuffles of crystalline easy-listening with unpleasant lyrics (think of a subtler Elvis Costello or less sentimental Morrissey) and delicate John Fahey-esque guitar interplay (especially on the last track "Life Goes Off"), and what you get is a surprisingly ingratiating yet challenging record. O'Rourke may leave his tongue glued to his cheek so that fans and detractors alike can continue scratching their heads, but on Insignificance, it sounds like he's accepted that cruel lullaby pop is where it's at--at least for now. --Cyndi Elliott

This is a great album:
I purchased this album without really knowing what I was buying. I got it because it came up in the "people who purchased this item also purchased..." page when I bought the Loose Fur album, which also features O'Rourke. I absolutely love it. I've now listened to Sonic Youth and Loose Fur and have decided that O'Rourke is at his best when he's solo. I bought this CD not really knowing much about Jim O'Rourke, but now I'm a big fan.

O'rourke's Best:
This is undoubtedly O'rourke's best album that is credited to him alone(as he seems to have a hand in everything released these days). The quirky beats, catchy chords, and lyrical wizardry lends to this album a quality that is present but not fully realized in the earlier Euereka. What was missing in his earlier work is included here. The first three songs are orchestrated very similarly. O'rourke seemed to pick a rhythmic theme for each one and then layer upon pianos, xylaphones, sporadic drum beats and soothing lyrics. The blatantly redundant rhythms anchor the music in rock, but the other elements help provide the signature quirkiness and brilliance that is synonomous with the artist. The piano keys pound away on Insignificance chopstick like while O'Rourke languidly lets lyrics spill into each other, and then makes the chorus bridge-like. I shant go on, but this is a gem, good music is being made and this is evidence of it

Kelly Jones should be whooping with childish glee:
If it's true about stereophonical Kelly Jones bizarrely claiming Dylan's vitriolic 'Positively 4th Street' as his all-time favourite song (bizarre in-part because it's minor Dylan) then he should whooping with childish glee at Jim's wide array of barbed lyrical put-downs on 'Insignificance', O'Rourke's second 'straight' solo album. "listening to you reminds me of a motor's endless drone/and how the deaf are so damn lucky" from 'Memory Lame', "I've travelled round the world/why am I talking to you", from another. That the album is being touted as a "southern-fried rock album" is confusing. It's Jim's rock album in the same way that Lifes Rich Pageant was REM's rock album; both labelled by their opening tracks. Only three songs rock and even then the lyrics are delivered in that familiar sardonic, unfazed manner, with the tunes themselves morphing restlessly into beatific rural melodies. The title track even appears like some High Llamas before it quickly tires of the comparison and shifts into something more exciting. The tag with this album is not the rock as such but the employment of a live band (Jeff Tweedy wouldn't really arrive on any album with "RAWK!" emblazoned on his shirt collar). Jim wanted the album fresher, more immediate. His previous album, the densely arranged cycling 'Eureka', sounded like the result of several months alone, cocooned in a studio. But even though 'Insignificance' is sparser, more simplistic, it's still exquisitely crafted. There are no loose jams.... And it's the craft that makes this album a wonder to behold. Those ever shifting melodies, the effortless jumps from 'Cold Blooded Old Times' stylie two chord Velvet rock to brass inflected pastoral folk, the multitude of ideas on each song, each greedily cast aside for the next. These are the things Mr Jones should be paying greater attention to. The short length of the album may irk but it's all the more astonishing for the ground covered. The Stereophonics, after all their tedious and long-winded years of song, are still fumbling with the needle at the end of side one. Nevertheless if these taut superlative thirty-odd minutes still leave you blissfully unaware of the perverse charms of Jim O'Rourke then you only need to look in baffled wonder at the brightly coloured sleeve. It features an octopus 'entertaining' a Japanese man-baby.

Insignificance:
I wanted to like this album, I really did. I am a huge fan of avant-garde outfit Gastr Del Sol (of which O'Rourke was one half) and my expectations were high. Charmed by Mimiyo Tomozawa's cover art I slipped the cd into my stereo to discover ... what I can only describe as almost commercial pop rock. I kid you not friends. Gone are Gastr's wonderful soundscapes and fascinating tape effects. Instead we have 4/4 signature pop rock coupled with O'Rourke's downbeat vocals. Now don't get me wrong: the lyrics are just as witty as ever and there are some nice snatches of melody here and there (particularly in the standout track of the album, 'Get a Room'). Perhaps my expectations are too high. After all, Gastr is no more and O'Rourke has a right to develop as an artist in any way he chooses - pop sensibilities were clearly signalled in the last Gastr album 'Camofleur' (which is a fine album by the way). Pop has a place and if you want pop then this will do just fine, but my chief reaction to the album is a feeling of disappointment. An artist of O'Rourke's calibre is surely capable of more.

Beware, or pay a hefty sum:
The hefy sum of which I speak is of course your own rational mind (or what you thought was your own before you gave Mr. O'Rourke a listen). Be prepared to bathe in the splendor of what Jim O'Rourke has created for an infinite amount of time because the beauty of this music will engulf your mind. Every post-O'Rourke thought will belong to both Jim and yourself, so abandon all hope of privacy.--Of course I'm joking, but this is truly wonderful music. While I don't particularly enjoy his noise related recordings, everything else the man associates himself with is pure ecstasy. So in closing, give Jim a chance (and also your mind).

• All Downhill from Here
• Insignificance
• Therefore, I Am
• Memory Lame
• Good Times
• Get a Room
• Life Goes Off