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On the Record
Allan Raible's Take on the New Music
Review: Paul Westerberg’s “49:00”
July 23, 2008 1:11 PM
Last Saturday, former Replacements leader Paul Westerberg was supposed to release his new album on his website. The catch was that it was supposed to be forty-nine minutes of music (it’s actually 43:55! Go figure!) for a low, low price of forty-nine cents, in celebration of June 49th. (In case you are wondering, that’s July 19th.) Something in the plan must’ve hit a snag because the album wasn’t up for download until Monday, but it is now available for just under two quarters as promised.
The record is one massive track containing what would amount to many different songs if there were indeed traditional track divisions. They fade in and out of each other with bizarre frequency. Once you get used to something, something else comes in on top of it and smothers it. The effect can be maddening. It’s as if someone left the radio station in the not so capable hands of Skippy the Intern. Occasionally different songs are played at the same time out of different speakers. Truth be told though, this is really an enjoyable experiment. Westerberg is able to prove that he hasn’t mellowed and he can still be sonically unruly. It’s well worth the price. Any fan of the Replacements or Westerberg’s edgier solo material (like let’s say his Grandpaboy alter-ego) should find something to enjoy here. It all sounds as if it was recorded in his basement, and I have to say, there is something refreshing about someone like Westerberg still jamming out like a kid in his parents’ garage. Too many of his contemporaries have mellowed and honed their productions into blandness. This record is anything but bland and uninteresting.
It’s almost like it has a progression based on clarity. It gets messier as more time passes.
(full review continues, click the link above)
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I bought 49:00 on Amazon.com, and I've listened to it about three times so far this week and it is excellent. One long, unbroken track, with a few full length songs and other songs picked up in the middle -- it works. It really, really works. Just like the review says, it is like someone is spinning a radio dial and there's Paul tunes on every channel. All of it sounds rough, and you'll be screaming for full length, profession studio versions of some of these song fragments after you're done. I know I am.
'Tis a thing of beauty. Check it out. 49 cents! How can you go wrong?
http://paulwesterberg.com (instructions are here)
