Spectreview: Gabriel Birnbaum – Not Alone

-DEEP PINK-

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“I like to see your name appear on my phone
One of the many incarnations by which you are known
Thinking of you somewhere thinking of me and I’m not alone”

A record like Not Alone doesn’t come about without years and years on the touring circuit and countless nights on a dark stage, playing for who knows. Sure, you can cheat out a record of its kind – hire some enterprising production team and a series of studio musicians – but you can’t truly fake what Gabriel Birnbaum (co-vocalist of Brooklyn band Wilder Maker) is doing here. This record feels weighty with history and practice, perhaps partly due to the adeptness of the playing throughout (with Adam Brisbane the only borrowed presence from Wilder Maker), but mostly because of how much confidence Birnbaum projects on what amounts to his solo debut. It takes guts to base your opening track (your title track) on a sonic rip of VU’s “Candy Says” and four repeated lines of slowly-uttered lyrics, but by virtue of their repetition they morph from endearingly cheesy sentiments to resolute mantras, all as his backing band does the changing for him. As close as Birnbaum stays to the traditional alt-country path across the record, it’s because he’s so good at putting together songs of that style that there’s no need for path straying. Not Alone is all meat-and-potatoes arrangements infused with critical warmth and absorbing charisma, with clever reinterpretations of universal influences: the bubbling, Elliott Smith-like “Stack the Miles” is brilliantly structured to be carried along by its winding chords; the joyous “Comeback Song” feels akin to the breakthrough Wilco experienced on Being There; “Archives” and “Blue Kentucky Miles” carry a Berman-esque dark existential streak, even if Birnbaum’s wordplay is more heartfelt than acerbic. Throughout, the production’s clean without being sterile, the playing tight but not without copious amounts of character, and Birnbaum himself, as known, makes for a compelling focus point through his elastic, Morby-ish vocals. Barring one slightly-sluggish moment in closing track “Oh Jesus,” the pacing’s exquisite as well. Overall, Not Alone’s simply splendid (or splendidly simple?) and a surprising spotlight moment for a time-tested musician, sure to be an ideal companion for the deadening autumn.

Recommended for every decomposing leaf underfoot.