Greg Laswell’s last record, Through Toledo, was essentially a single. The lead track “Sing, Theresa Says” was a gem followed by ten tracks of filler. It was a showcase of little more than great potential. Laswell proved himself to be a singer/songwriter who was almost-but-not-quite ready to take his place in the ever-widening folk schematic somewhere between Sufjan Stevens and yes, Gavin DeGraw. He had the wispy subdued voice (it’s perhaps a bit deeper) and the more-is-more approach to arrangement of Stevens and DeGraw’s pop sensibilities. In terms of the actual songs he wrote, “Sing, Theresa Says” seemed to be the peak of his potential. It’s a good song, but not a great song, so it seemed likely that Greg Laswell would, if he got his shit together, put out a good-but-not-great album.
On Three Flights from Alto Nido, Laswell does just that. It’s not a great record, but it’s listenable as hell. The songs are miles better than the filler on Through Toledo. This album is deliciously listenable, delivering track after shimmering, poppy track. Though you’re not likely to see this record spinning on any hipster’s turntables, Laswell has managed to amplify all of his strengths and make them overshadow his weaknesses. The songs wrap their arms around the listener, and it’s like being hugged by a small child – sweeter than it perhaps intends, more genuine for its impulsiveness.
Three Flights starts on a great note, with the brooding “It’s Been A Year,” which tackles the typically Laswellian themes of trying in vain to move past forsaken love. The xylophone and string-soaked fingerpicker “Sweet Dream” is the centrepiece of the record, a wonderful track only a minute long that leads into the quietly turbulent “Days Go On”. It is with “Sweet Dream” that the record pivots away from melancholy pop adopting a more urgent, percussive tone.
Laswell’s conversational lyrical style makes the record simultaneously more genuine and more amateurish. The “time/rhyme,” “fall/all,” “understand/hand” couplets abound; there is nothing creative going on here lyrically. This is no surprise – Laswell’s strengths have always been more instrumental and vocal, less lyrical. But given the improvements on every other front, it seems a shame that the lyrics are as unimaginative as they are.
Lyrics aside, Three Flights from Alto Nido surpassed expectations. While his previous effort rode on the success of its lead single, this album is as strong as that single from start to finish. While this is perhaps short on the on the sort of sophistication the average hipster will seek, it’s certainly not the sort of Top 40 crap you’ll hear on the radio. So it seems Laswell has carved out that niche – right there in between.
7.8 / 10.0
