In this day and age, Singer-Songwriters are often compared to other similar artists from both past and present. For Nashville-based performer Griffin House (offical / myspace), the chief comparison seems to be Josh Ritter or Ryan Adams. Griffin’s latest offering, Flying Upside Down (April 29 – Nettwerk), opens with the track “Better Than Love” and the opening notes and lyrics for that cut are drenched with the sound of Adams. House does make clear that he is his own artist however. On this album, House never quite reaches the highs of Adams best works (think Heartbreaker-era), but he also never sinks to the meandering, moody and often times self-indulgent lows of Adams past either (think 29).
House takes the form of 60′s folk-singer with “I Remember (It’s Happening Again),” as he does an admirable job of connecting the dots of today’s military conflicts with many of the wars from our past, thus displaying the similarities of not only those conflicts but the people and nations behind them. The literal nature of the lyrics over much of this disc is refreshing. I’m all for dense, complicated and often times untranslateable stories set to music, ala Radiohead, My Morning Jacket and The Drive by Truckers, to a certain point. Having said that, this album succeeds in offering up an accessible look into life and love and hoiw House sees it.
The album’s star track is “When the Time is Right.” This cut offers simplicity, but doesn’t let that stand in the way of setting an atmospheric, wistful and yearning vibe. House is asking her to not “hold back” and I get the impression that he knows that is likely to never happen. With so many songs devoted to love or the building of a relationship, it would’ve been nice to hear a couple of songs about love gone really wrong. Perhaps House can work on a bad break-up between now and the next album for some bleaker material (just kidding). Even in “Waiting For the Rain to Come Down,” the somewhat upbeat pace of the song seems to detract from his prayer for redemption, but again, not to the point of ruin.
All in all, Flying Upside Down succeeds much in the way a folk record that isn’t attempting to alter the musical landscape should. House establishes a folky-pop presence and displays the chops that will likely show a great deal of development over the next couple of albums.
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