 Andre Chrys
"Terminal Avenue" CD
self-released
Genre: country, roots-rock,
singer / songwriter
Sep 5 2008 |
"All I know is, it must be good for something." Such is the
enlightened Weltanschauung of philosophy grad-school graduate Andre
Chrys. On Terminal Avenue, Chrys unleashes his
feelings of milquetoasty acceptance in the form of eleven tracks of
depressive "thinking man's roots rock." This means doe-eyed country
ballads and vaguely bluesy numbers. They are precisely and competently
executed. Sadly, the thinking man's lyrics sometimes recall a
bummed-out Tom Scholz-Enya hybrid.
Chrys has a gift for applying his higher education by making
big universalist observations and phrasing them in profound-sounding
paradoxical ways, but the results of his mother-goosery are largely
predictable and trite. Chrys is most convincing when he really
means what he says, like in "The Modification Song," a punchy take on
image-consciousness from a certified aesthete. He's particularly on
his game in "Guardian Angel (You've Been Drinking On The Job)." That
song's stumbling tone casts his maunderings in a self-deprecating
light, with charming results that might even make you smile. Still,
Terminal Avenue's overriding tone is vanilla, passive and
defeated. The most pleasant track is the cryptically titled one about
the generic bipolar girlfriend. The most resolute? That would be
"Terminal Avenue" itself. It's a suicide song. Duh.
andre
chrys' myspace
69%
Rhett Alexander
[Vitals: 11 tracks, distributed by
CD Baby,
released 2004] |
