Necessity: 4 Track Years

Necessity: 4 Track Years

The ex-Jellyfish and Three O'Clock member offers up a collection of previously unreleased songs, as well as more than a handful of alternate takes on tracks from 1996's <I>Author Unknown </I>. The four-track method of recording suits Falkner's jagged power pop quite well, the lower fidelity lending an aura as warm and fuzzy as the creative impulse that originally brought it into being. Falkner certainly isn't rewriting the rules of pop (the man is full of Beatles-isms), but ultimately, so what? There's still a charming emotional honesty here, in both the vocal delivery (most notably on "His Train") and lyrics. "If I had you I could never ask for anything again as long as I live," Falkner confesses, only to puzzle two tracks later, "I think I just found out the hard way, how you can give away too much." And yet he keeps on trucking. <I>--Bob Michaels</I>