indiecater

We have a lot to thank Conor Oberst for. First of all there’s the fact that his 2005 album ‘I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning’ is one of the years best. Secondly and perhaps more crucially he has been instrumental in giving Willy Mason a break by signing him to his label Team Love. 20-year-old Mason drifted in from Martha’s Vineyard on a tide of ramshackle chords, country tinged backdrops and wry lyrical repositories. And now he has gone and produced a debut of understated beauty. It’s like that feeling you got all those years ago when Beck drifted over the speakers for the first time.

Apart from his ability to engineer a great tune Willy Mason’s trump card is his vintage voice. Perhaps he has perfected the first homemade vocal chord sander but the noise he makes is remarkably cultured for one so young with the result that his insightful lyrics seem apt. The musicianship is loose and free wheeling like on the albums opening track ‘Gotta Keep Movin’ which could really be the output from an over enthusiastic rocking chair enthusiast from the deep South. Mason ideas may script life’s underbelly but many of his tunes are punctured by couplets delivered in fluffy coated choruses. ‘Still A Fly’ is one such, coming and going in just under 2 and a half minutes; its simple chord changes wander mischievously until Mason dips the vocals and begs not be forgotten.

‘Oxygen’ has become a torch song, Mason gently bares his soul amid a backdrop of acoustic guitars and sweetly vulnerable vocals. ‘Oxygen’ and the albums title track are the potential seeds for Masons progression into public consciousness. ‘Where The Humans Eat’ has a steady course, defined by a rolling drumbeat, Masons lazy delivery of super lines like “I just fed you, and your fat brother, so why are you now, still yelling at me?” and the odd spectral emission. It’s the albums defining moment, a true 21st century classic. While ‘Where The Humans Eat’ exposes Mason’s ability to come up with straight laced pop, it’s obvious his preference lies in off kilter strumalongs, the kind that would make his campfire the location for this years best party. ‘Hard To Hold’ shuffles unevenly, chords chime and Mason storylines until a familiar chorus has everyone joining in. ‘So Long’ is equally rousing, its youthful theme and energetic stance will have audiences all over the world in a tizzy.

'Where The Humans Eat' has two thirds of an album worth of memorable tunes. The scraps are not totally forgettable but are harder to embrace (‘Our Town’, ‘Letter #1’, ‘Sold My Soul’, ‘21st Century Boy’). This means the album sags a little in the middle but the initial flurry and closing fireworks are so wondrous that they are easily forgotten. Mason tempers his pervasive use of melody with topics as bleak as homelessness, broken families and incarceration. The general mood is undoubtedly one of melancholy, which could leave inlay card readers reaching for the nearest bottle of JD. By immersing oneself in the music however the experience is one that is best shared with a few friends on a balcony overlooking the city on a warm summers evening.

It’s hard to ignore this album such is the ease with which it readily deals shards of wisdom, off centre playing and pockets of honeycombed melody. There may be a little bit of work involved in appreciating its curious directions but the enormity of Mason’s talent is there to see from the get go. He and Mr Bright Eyes are beginning to deliver a rich seam of urban poetry put to equally compelling music. With Mason’s predilection for taking to the road in his campervan on a quest to take over the world he could yet become the 21st centuries most revered travelling minstrel. KD

Rating: 7/10


More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Album: [UK] Where the Humans Eat [US] Where the Humans Eat

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