Passenger - Wicked Man's Rest

Genre pop Publisher ChalkMark External Links Passenger MySpace

It’s inevitable that Wicked Man’s Rest by Passenger will draw comparisons to James Blount, both artists have the reedy, nasal, English lilt that only seems emphasized by their choice in ambient sounds that are overtly British. Although both Passenger and James Blount have many of the same vocal characteristics, Passenger still has a charm that hasn’t been decimated by too many radio plays and that James’ skeeviness rakes from his music. By far, the most unique tracks on Wicked Man’s Rest are “Wicked Man’s Rest,” “Night Vision Binoculars” and “For You.” Despite the fact that Passenger occasionally ventures to improve upon the already well-treaded Brit-pop singer/songwriter territory, the disc comes off as largely intuitive and borderline homogenous. With the exception of the aforementioned tracks, the other eight tracks are so intuitive in that I found myself singing along at first listen and finishing Mike Rosenberg’s lyrics.

Wicked Man’s Rest begins strongly with the tinkling of piano keys and a haunting cello accompaniment. Mike Rosenberg murmurs his lyrics and fills them with emotion that can’t be overcome by the somewhat trite lyrics. As the song moves from verse one and bleeds to the second, the spell is broken by an authoritative voice that comes in with a non sequitur of “Which way are we going / The doors close in an hour.” The lyrics are confusing and do not to gel with Mike’s insistence that he is “the beast in you, the beast in me / the part of you that never sleeps.”

“Night Vision Binoculars” starts out with a poppy synthesizer beat that’s simple and fun, no presence of the mournful but oddly captivating band from the previous song. The track breaks into an almost joyful stalking song as Mike sings “I see you nearly everyday / I see you but you don’t see me” over the sound of a European dial tone and hang ups. As the song progresses from verse to verse the time of day changes, “I see you nearly every night / I see you when you’re down in your house.” Even with the hooting owls and the bandmates whispering the lyrics behind Mike, the synth beat and the bopping tempo manages to keep the song from being creepy. Despite the inclusion of the words, “I’m the one with restraining orders.”

“For You” draws upon a wholly different influence than any of the other songs on the disc and sounds as though it could be an undiscovered track from Simon and Garfunkel. The track begins with lightly plucked strings and Mike, once again, murmuring his lyrics. He’s soon joined in harmony. Although the lyrics take on a darker tone occasionally, the swelling of the strings and the thrumming of the drums make the song heartbreakingly beautiful while maintaining its quirkiness.

The majority of the songs on the disc sound fairly generic, but the mastery with which they are played and the sense of humor the lyrics hold within them (which almost make some of them seem intentionally trite) make the three phenomenal tracks stand out. The sense of humor is mentioned throughout their MySpace page and in multiple interviews, but to the majority who have not researched the band, the joke comes off flat. For those who don’t want to do the research, enjoy it for the pop it is.