Jack Logan and The Monday Night Recorders
Nature’s Assembly Line
Orange Twin
Remember in Sheryl Crow’s Behind the Music where the narrator leads the show through her sordid past when she screwed over the other members of the Tuesday Night Music Club for her debut album? Well, the Monday Night Recorders should make the opposite claim. Both projects seemingly were created under the same conditions: a group of seasoned musicians meeting weekly to create new songs. This album was conceived by Jack Logan, an artist known for opting for quantity over quality (see his 42-track Bulk for proof), and along with his players, 94 songs were crafted over the course of a year. These were pared down to 15, which found themselves on this album. The problem with this disc, and these types of projects in general, is how unfinished and ill-conceived the material comes across. There’s a staggering lack of innovation from song to song, begging the question why, if so many seasoned professionals performed from week to week, no one thought to pick up a (semi) obscure instrument to add a little flavor to the mix. Aside from occasional keys, dobro and harmonica, it’s a guitar/bass/drums affair. A domino effect of disappointment occurs because of this quashing of any spontaneity that supposedly inspired this work; it ends up feeling line-produced in a factory rather than natural, as cookie-cutter as the music it was intended to be railing against.
Orange Twin: http://www.orangetwin.com
