Little by little
After last year's relatively lo-fi 'Discover A Lovelier You', the Pernice Brothers return with vintage gear, a real orchestra and a contrastingly ambitious new album in the form of 'Live A Little'. Recorded in a 24 track analog studio with "a well rehearsed band hell-bent on milking a feel onto every song" there's definitely a luxurious feel to the twelve tracks that make up this album.
The lively stomp of opener 'Automaton' mines a similar power-pop vein to Teenage Fanclub, The New Pornographers et al., its lushly over-tracked vocals dreamily spinning a melodic web over garage-y guitars and sparkling swathes of organ. Messrs. Love, McGinley and Blake will be similarly impressed (or should that be irked?) by the impeccable Fannies pastiche that is the following and appropriately titled 'Somerville' – a pleasant romp that could all too easily have been lifted from their opus 'Grand Prix'. It's a relief to discover that there's more to this album than a sharp ear for melodic Byrds inspired jangle pop – 'Microscopic View' undergoes a quite radical transformation from ugly duckling to elegant swan in the space of a few bars, its lush orchestral closing half eclipsing rather half-hearted acoustic beginnings. Amongst the gems though there's the odd chunk of fools gold (as with most albums), the ineffectual 'PCH One' is little more than a competent Big Star homage and the dreary 'Zero Refills' is similarly uninspiring. Thankfully the good numbers more than out-weigh the mediocre ones and (Joe) Pernice's voice is delightful throughout, the dreamy 'How Can I Compare?' is charming and the string laden drama of 'B.S. Johnson' is amongst the album's finest cuts adding a little friction to the mix. The sparkling 'Lightheaded' is also worthy of closer inspection; an energetic blend of four to the floor drumming, upbeat piano and driving guitars its faintly psychedelic closing passage is particularly impressive and segues rather nicely into the giddy 'High As A Kite'. The oddly titled 'Grudge F***', a sumptuously orchestrated re-working of a 1996 number from Joe Pernice's previous band The Scud Mountain Boys, closes the album in a suitably elegant fashion recalling the under-rated melodic bombast of prime-time E.L.O.
In conclusion, 'Live A Little' is a well crafted album of finely turned out power pop that's sure to delight fans of the genre. On the negative side however there's little here that sets the Pernice Brothers apart from their peers and given the current glut of similar albums flooding the market 'Live A Little' may simply blend into the background.