Comments on: “Indecision” by Steven Page, thoughts and review

By: Julie Dworman

Julie Dworman — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 19:29:27 +0000

A comment I mistakenly marked as spam from “jayhawkseattle”:

Thanks for the review. I fell in love with this song live and acoustic, but think I like it even better in the final album version with the (marimba?) and Esthero backing vocals. My only fear is that it sounds very different from most of the music on mainstream radio right now and that might limit its airplay.

I’m a longtime BNL fan who realized I’m actually a Steven Page or BNL 1.0 fan. I agree with you totally on the BNL 1.0 chemistry. The “bathroom sessions” videos on YouTube are an excellent example. They really were more than the sum of their parts…sigh.

Given that, here I go with the inevitable “new” BNL comparison. AIGT didn’t dazzle me. It’s not that I don’t like some of the new songs, but the country rock/easy listening vibe the album often displays didn’t appeal to me. A big factor is that while I appreciate Kevin and Jim’s musicianship and miss their contributions on the new Steven songs, I don’t enjoy them singing lead…especially Kevin. IMHO, BNL post-Steven are truly a different band –okay but not special.

OTOH, I’ve heard all the songs on Steven’s upcoming album Page One live with the new band, and the songs have really developed. I’m also excited by his other solo possibilities. His voice is suited to many types of music, and I’d love to see him branch out beyond his collaboration with The Art of Time Ensemble.

By: steph

steph — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 03:55:52 +0000

Thanks for this!

By: admin

admin — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 19:17:35 +0000

Yeah of course. I mean, I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing to compare his new stuff to BNL. He was one of the biggest forces behind BNL, and that’s a huge part of his career and always will be. It’s sorta like realizing that Ed’s the only member to never really have a side project (uhh Tyler has DTD) and then the 2nd realization, oh wait, it’d sound just like BNL, doh.

I haven’t thought about “Indecision” in terms of AIGT. I like “You Run Away” better than “Indecision” but they’re two totally different kinds of songs and I only brought up the comparison because they’re both the First Singles. I’ve usually enjoyed Steve’s writing the most, for example, I think “Over Joy” (which will be on Page One) is one of the best songs I’ve ever, ever heard, and I like it just as much as many of my favorite BNL tracks.

I miss hearing them together in both places. I want to hear Steve sing when I listen to AIGT, and I want to hear Ed and the guys on Page solo stuff. That will probably never go away, but I’m pretty okay with it. You can’t change, create, delete, or otherwise modify musical chemistry, and I feel more chemistry in BNL 1988 – 2009 than in any other musical act I’ve seen or heard. Regardless, it definitely doesn’t stop me from enjoying AIGT and solo Steve. I fell in love with TVP and I’m sure the same thing will happen when this record drops.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:30:21 +0000

Musically, it really sounds a lot like many of the songs from the new BNL album (“I Have Learned,” “Every Subway Car,” “How Long,” and especially “Golden Boy.”) Lyrically, still clearly a Page song, but it sounds more like his BNL work than anything on The Vanity Project. That’s a good thing in my view, but I’m sure every other review of everything else he ever does will include a comparison to BNL, so there will be plenty of others.

By: charlie

charlie — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:22:09 +0000

I thought this was just as good as any of BNLs latest offerings.