Search - Ben Vaughn :: Vol. 2-Vaughn Sings Vaughn

Witty songwriter's second volume of self covers

hyperbolium | Earth, USA | 12/31/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Vaughn is most widely known for his compositional contributions to television's "3rd Rock From the Sun" and "That '70s Show," and from well-known covers of his songs by Marshall Crenshaw ("I'm Sorry (But So is Brenda Lee)") and The Morells ("The Man Who Has Everything"). Liner note readers will also recognize his name from production work he's performed for an array of artist that spans Charlie Feathers, Arthur Alexander, Ween, and Los Straitjackets. Ironically, his own carefully rendered recordings, starting with 1985's The Many Moods of Ben Vaughn and running through 2006's Designs in Music mostly remain the province of dedicated fans. His `80s and '90s releases with the Ben Vaughn Combo are a treasure trove of `60s style, clever lyrics, droll vocals, AM radio hooks and, ultimately, a surprising amount of emotion for a songwriter whose tongue is usually found in his cheek.



This 2007 volume is the second in a series documenting Vaughn's quixotic journey to cover all his own songs. Included are songs he's recorded himself, songs he's given to others, and a sprinkle of songs that never made it to commercial release. In addition to the time-shift of a mature songwriter reconsidering his earlier works, the use of a single band (Vaughn's current working group, the Ben Vaughn Desert Classic) lends coherence to these songs that an anthology of their original versions couldn't deliver. Vaughn's revisited material in the past, reworking a few songs for 1992's Mood Swings that he felt hadn't previously reached their full potential, but never has he taken such a methodical tour of his own catalog. This time out he revisits material from 1988's Blows Your Mind, 1990's Dressed in Black, 1992's Mood Swings, 1995's Instrumental Stylings, 2002's Glasgow Time, and the rare Swedish compilation album Hit the Hay, Vol. 3.



Included among the selections here is a helping of Vaughn's truth-through-humor, including the all-too-feeling "Too Sensitive for this World" and the vindictively mending broken heart of "She's Your Problem Now." The former misses the soulful backing vocals of its earlier incarnation, the latter sounds more emotionally worn than the original. More buoyant are Vaughn's ode to being in the band, "Rhythm Guitar," the rockabilly love song "Hold Your Peace," and the romantic testimonial "Carved in Stone." Vaughn writes with the same sort of sincerity as Jonathan Richman, but where Richman exults in childlike wonder, Vaughn writes of the joys and heartbreaks that start turning up in one's twenties. That he's been able to hold on to the passion of those feelings is a testament to their strength as formative building blocks.



In revisiting earlier works, Vaughn takes the opportunity to reapply his ever-developing musical sensibility to previous creations. It's like a talented touch-up artist reworking an early photo: the results aren't as arresting as the first exposure, but the modulations reveal new aspects of the original composition, the path taken in the interim, and the artist's current state. These fine shades will mostly enrich Vaughn's longtime fans (as will the songs that appear to be introduced here for the first time). Those new to Vaughn's catalog will get a good cross-section of witty pop-craft, but without the sparks that accompany the originals. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com]"