Review: 'Vagabond' maybe should have stayed home

Gary Louris
Vagabonds
Rykodisc

Being a rabid, drooling Jayhawks fan, I looked forward to founding Jayhawks member Gary Louris' solo debut the way a junkie looks forward to his next fix. I needed it, if nothing else to try to ease the heartbreak of the latest Jayhawks breakup (even though I cling stubbornly to the belief that that breakup is as nonpermanent as all that have come before).

Getting to the point, "Vagabonds" was not the comforting embrace I needed. In fact, it pointed out anew the big gaping void the Jayhawks' departure (for now) has torn in my universe. For this junkie, the fix was all too fleeting, and it wasn't even really that fun.

"Vagabonds" shows Gary Louris as supreme dictator, though presumably a nice enough one, and sole songwriter. Free from the restraints of working with a band, and of having to uphold a certain sound, he lets his hair down. Metaphorically speaking, of course. There's plenty of electric guitar -- a leaning Louris first manifested on "Sound of Lies," arguably the least Jayhawksy Jayhawks album (though I'm in the minority that loves it). But the biggest break from the Way of Jayhawks is a lack of sung harmony, which is absolutely startling if you're coming to this album with a familiarity with Louris' former (maybe) band. But he has the pipes to stand alone, in theory.

In practice, however, getting through this album takes some work. To borrow a lyric from the opening song, you've got to "strip it down to what you can rescue." Because there are layers upon layers upon layers of ... layers to this thing. While the production, led by Chris Robinson -- yes, of the Black Crowes -- puts Louris' singing front and center, there's plenty of competition. Most notably from the a "choir" credited in the liner notes. And while it's a damn impressive roster of voices -- Robinson, Susanna Hoffs and Jenny Lewis, for examples -- the choir effect adds little, at best, to songs on which it's employed (almost every one). And at worst, it annoys me enough to prompt a lunge for the "next track" button.

I found myself hitting "next" quite a bit while listening to this album, actually. Most of the songs are good enough, but each feels too long by several minutes. And with the longest song on the album clocking in at about 5 1/2 minutes, and most more like 4 minutes, that's a serious problem. Many of the songs are repetitive, and, well, just plain boring. Even musical doo-dads like choral flourishes and a pedal steel and, ummm, hand claps don't punch through the blah. And the lyrics don't shine enough to save the day.

You could blame the production for a lot of this, but listening to "Acoustic Vagabonds," a bonus disc that comes with the album only at independent record stores, is only marginally better. The strummy treatment frames Louris' voice to better effect, I think, and grates less for lack of overwrought choral effects. But here the weakness of the lyrics becomes more apparent, and the songs get boring just as quickly.

Maybe it's unfair to approach "Vagabonds" in the context of the Jayhawks, but it's inevitable. And while the Jayhawks have broken my heart a million times with their breakups and lineup changes, they never, ever bored me. I think HW.org buddy Carlton sums it up best, as he often does: "If Mark Olson's latest album sounds like 50% of the Jayhawks, then this one sounds like the other 50% Neither half is quite as good as the whole."