Pete Yorn - Back & Fourth Review

Posted by CA on 06.26.2009

Is Pete Yorn really the singer/songwriter for our generation?

Track Listing:
1. Don’t Wanna Cry (3:56)
2. Paradise Cove (3:57)
3. Close (4:23)
4. Social Development Dance (4:55)
5. Shotgun (4:01)
6. Last Summer (4:53)
7. Thinking of You (3:42)
8. Country (5:05)
9. Four Years (3:46)
10. Long Time Nothing New (4:15)
11. Rooftop (4:10) (iTunes only bonus track)
12. Welcome (3:42) (iTunes preorder only bonus track)

Label: Columbia
Release Date: 06.23.09
Running Time: 42:48
Producer: Mike Mogis

Alright, if no one else is going to say it, I will. Pete Yorn is the luckiest man on Earth. Of the millions and millions of whiny, talent-less, ‘introspective’, white, male, acoustic singer/songwriters sitting around college quad trees and empty bars singing about love and loss in metaphorical terms as deep as ‘birds in the sky’, how many of them actually get record contracts? Out of those precious few, how many actually convince people they are real artists, worthy of being mentioned alongside Bruce Springsteen and Warren Zevon?

He does it to me every single time. Every time I listen to a Pete Yorn album, I find it to be 'pretentious pop in songwriter’s clothing' fare and, every single time, someone convinces me to come back and try it again because he ‘really is that good’. And every time…EVERY TIME…I come back for more punishment. I’ve been told the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I don’t know if that is true, but I do like the sound of ‘Pete Yorn makes me insane.’

Upon listening to the entire record, Back & Fourth, I find it very difficult to distinguish between songs. As if a giant blanket of crap has washed over me. The best one can do, is describe the entire sound of the album. Take Ryan Adams’ Gold, make the songs more depressing (including taking out any tracks that might make the album fun), imagine that his voice is less interesting, realize that you’ve heard the entire album before, and instead of it being an artist making their first solo album, now it is someone who has had three full-length LP’s to perfect their craft. NOW, you have Pete Yorn’s Back & Fourth. Need proof that this is formulaic? Other than the insult to our intelligence in his title (you have to count your albums for us....in a kitschy way)? Okay, take a look at the song lengths. Did you notice that, after a high/low split, the difference in time from the shortest song to longest song is fifty seven seconds? Not enough? Let’s do some lyrical analysis, shall we?

On “Close”, Pete croons the following…(ahem)…

Hey what's going on?
I could still be strong
For us tonight
I know it will get hard
But I won't run away
I'll figure it out
Just stay close
Wait for the sun
Learn to live this life, learn to get along

All this innocence
That we've come to miss
Will make us stronger
I don't have the time to go back in time
I already lived it
Just stay close
Wait for the sun
Learn to live this life, learn to get along
Just stay close wait for the stars
Until they realign just like the first time

On “Paradise Cove”, Pete has the following to say…

Play me a song...
Play me a song
Sing your heart out
Expecting the sun
I got what I wanted and it wasn't enough
I got what I wanted when you showed up
I got what I wanted and it's never enough

I drove out to the white trash beach
On a brief vacation
I'd felt freer than I had in a long time
I wondered if it’s cause you were gone

I got what I wanted when you showed up
I got what I wanted and it's wasn’t enough
I got what I wanted when you showed up
I got what I wanted and it's never enough

Surfers protect the actors from flashers
Fathers and sons talk it out like brothers
The water doesn't sting as much in the summer
The waves can carry you home

Now, for my personal favorite, I’m just going to quote these words from “Shotgun”…

Baby
Gimme a sign
A message coming through
With all we're
Leaving behind
I miss you
I want to know about you
I want to live around you
But it's easy to worry here
Oh I hope I don't disappear
I know, yeah, I know
But I'm leaving it up to you
Yeah baby
Yeah baby
I needed some time
To figure out my shit

Such poetry, like Yeats in his heyday, one might surmise. NOW, I know why this gentle craftsman of the word would be considered so highly. THIS is a man that should be put next to people like Bob Dylan and Ray Davies.

All sarcasm aside, this might be the worst album I have ever put my ears toward. This just might be the Ishtar of albums. There are no positive points. Believe me, I TRIED to be objective. But if I forced some random positive out, you might just listen to it. Then I would be as culpable as Yorn is. I just can’t have that.

I have listened to Peter Gabriel movie soundtracks. I have listened to David Bowie electronica albums. I have even listened to Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs cover the Zombies' "Care of Cell 44". I've even forced myself onto KISS' Psycho Circus. Please, don't listen to this. You'll be a better person for it.

The 411: Listening to this album was like watching the ending montage of so many pre-teen WB shows without the visual drama. This was painful. Don't know what I mean? Go into your garage. Grab your nearest hammer. Proceed to pound on your thumb with full force for fifteen seconds. Do not seek medical attention. The pain you feel over the next forty minutes....almost close. Pete Yorn is a fraud. I hear his next album is with Scarlett Johansson, and I honestly can't wait...that's how bad THIS is.

Final Score:  0.5   [ Torture ]