Not a home run, but still good
Perhaps as a diehard Crenshaw fan I'm willing to give him more slack than most, but I really like this album, flaws and all. While it's clearly not nearly as good as Miracle of Science, and three instrumentals seem like two too many, there are some solid songs here that rank right up with anything he's done over the past 15 years or so. "Dime A Dozen Guy," "Tell Me All About It," "T.M.D." and "Right There In Front Of Me" would have made a killer EP. The Steely Danish "You Said What??" is the best of the instrumentals, though the others grow on you. Clearly Marshall is someone who needs plenty of time to recharge his lyric-writing batteries, and perhaps he should have waited another year or two before plunging into another album, but this still wears better than his third or fourth albums, or the out-of-print Life's Too Short. My main complaint is that the otherwise fine "Television Light" and "Glad Goodbye" go on for too long; even on a short album, the songs always benefit from Crenshaw's customary economy. It is good to see him continuing to branch out musically, and I hope to someday see his name on a movie score.
Avoid this one
The last Marshall Crenshaw album of the '90s is as nondescript as its title. What happened? After a rock-solid Razor & Tie debut with "Miracle of Science" that was as encouraging as could be, Crenshaw produces this mediocre effort. It's as if he decided he was tired of being tuneful. Some noodling, some instrumentals that don't really go anywhere, and few memorable tunes to hang onto. I suppose he was trying something new, which is commendable, but think it through first and come up with strong songs and I'll follow you anywhere, buddy. Not this, though; this went to my local used CD store.
Highly Underated
Marshall Crenshaw's 1999 release, "#447" is dismissed by most as a "good" or "not bad" record. I must say, that i couldn't disagree more. This record includes three instrumentals, all of which will be pleasing to the ears of lounge jazz afficianados. Some say tat three is far too many, however they act as perfect segues between three or four of Marshall's soothing melodies. All tracks standout as well done singer sonwriter compositions in vain of Warren Zevon and Jackson Browne. My favorite is "Television Light." The lyrics provide 1000 pictures of surburban evenings in Autumn. This album is highly underated! Should be considered a classic.
Good Number
Crenshaw's last one, "Miracle of Science," was uneven but its highlights were just about as good as anything he had done before. "Seven Miles an Hour" I was actually addicted to playing for a while, and his take on Grant Hart's "Twenty-Five Forty-One" was excellent. Instrumental was good too. Some of the other stuff was, for me, too Nashvilled-out, "sincere" as some songwriter playing for the industry rubes at Nashville's draggy Bluebird Café (Crenshaw's been recording in Nashville for a while now, with Brad Jones). One good thing about Marshall Crenshaw is that he was never some singer-songwriter; he was a rocker; and on the lesser "Miracle" cuts ("There and Back Again," "Only an Hour Ago") he began to drag me. Some of the songs on "#447" affect me the same way, but on the whole this is a better record, "mature" and "well-played" with a rueful edge. Marshall Crenshaw is, as we all are, gettin' older, losin' his hair, and he's doing the best he can. As a craftsman (another odious Nashville term, but what the hell) he has no peer, at least in the realm of the post-Beatles colloquial popular song. "Dime a Dozen Guy" and "Glad Goodbye" and "Right There in Front of Me" are all prime and the instrumentals are actually quite pleasant, if indicative of the vaguely jazzy area that so many power-poppers of a certain age get into (Crenshaw isn't as much fun live as Alex Chilton but he makes better records). With Chilton, it's very hit-or-miss, but Crenshaw seems to still enjoy making nice-sounding albums. Isn't that a Mellotron on "Glad Goodbye"? I guess I have just about all of Crenshaw's records, give or take a few, and this is, like, the third-best after his first two--tell the truth, I like it better than "Downtown." It's nice to know Marshall Crenshaw is around.
Marshall's most experimental work
People who have just recently purchased MC's new "Best of" CD, which is fantastic, may now be interested in building a Marshall Crenshaw collection. This CD may surprise or possibly disappoint those who have been digging on his best of album for a few weeks and are looking for something similar. This CD takes awhile to grow on you, but once it does, you will enjoy seeing a different side of Marshall.Marshall's last two studio CD's have highlighted him as a musician - a brilliant guitar player whose use of guitar effects and complex technique has certainly evolved in the last decade. Marshall's mostly guitar solo-less early work has become a thing of the past, as his most recent work has centered on his playing more than his ability to write a perfect two or three minute pop tune. The music here is much more textured and experimental, although Marshall's stamp is certainly on these songs.
Lyrically, this CD leaves a little to be desired. However what is most present here is Marshall's incredible (and continually evolving) prowess as a musician. All of the drum and bass tracks are Marshall himself, as is most of the guitar. Other musicians, mainly string players and keyboardists (including the wonderful David Sancious), add flourishes but musically, this album is almost all Marshall.
The instrumentals are a treat. The jazz-inflected "You Said What??" is fantastic, and each instrumental shows Marshall has been spending a long time perfecting his technique.
"Television Light" and "Dime A Dozen Guy" are both gems and trademark Crenshaw pop tunes with a modern edge, and would have fit in well on the best of CD.
But those expecting a duplicate of his first two albums will be disappointed. This CD shows a much more experimental side, and if you are ready to explore that, then you will enjoy this.
Pop-rocker Marshall Crenshaw's output--eight studio albums and a couple of collections of odds and ends over his nearly two-decade recording career--isn't the most prodigious in terms of size. But even the least ambitious of his records, such as #447, are suffused with a sweet puckishness that's never at odds with the resigned tone he often favors. Where 1996's Miracle of Science made up for a paucity of new songs with imaginatively chosen covers (Ray Price, Dobie Gray, Grant Hart), #447 fills space with three smooth instrumentals that suggest some smart indie-film music supervisor should hire Crenshaw. (He supplied music for the short-lived sitcom Men Behaving Badly and was seen in La Bamba and Peggy Sue Got Married.) Among the additions to his seemingly endless catalog of relationship-crisis numbers are "Dime a Dozen Guy" and "Glad Goodbye," while "T.M.D." (presumably titled "Truly, Madly, Deeply" before Savage Garden beat him to the punch) is a rarity on this record: a song about being happy in love. Go figure. --Rickey Wright
