Thursday, 07/07/05

R Rated Reviews

By Jason Moon Wilkins

David Mead
Wherever You Are
Eleven Thirty

There's a lot to explain about David Mead's newly issued EP, Wherever You Are. The easiest question to answer is, "Is it any good?" In my opinion, the answer is no.

It's great.

Mead is roundly recognized as one of themost sophisticated songwriters and finestsingers in this region, and these songs come as close to flawless as any he's ever released. Thematically, Wherever You Are isn't all that different from his previous material, treading through the murky waters of rocky relationships, the maze of hope and the isolation of modern life, but it's the recording that lifts this EP into rarefied air.

Every second of Wherever You Are is perfectly paced, each tune punctuated by just the right tones and textures, thanks to the production work of legendary Englishman Stephen Hague (New Order, Blur, Pet Shop Boys) mixing courtesy of top-shelf talent Tchad Blake (Neil Finn, Latin Playboys) and the playing of David's then-touring band Ethan Eubanks (drums) and Whynot Jansveld (bass).

If you think a CD of this quality and with this much pop potential should be coming out on a major label, that was the original plan.

"I recorded the full version with the band in late 2002," David tells ATR. "Right when I turned it in to the record company (RCA, to which he was signed at the time), they merged with another company, so some artists were dropped. They were actually really very gracious, and gave us most of the rights to the record back. But the thing was, by the time all that legal mumbo jumbo had gone down, I was on to something different and my head was in a much different space. I had started this other record with David Henry because I didn't really know whether or not I was going to get Wherever You Are back, and (Indiana) seemed like a more timely thing to put out."

This year, David found himself in a similar circumstance, with a new album, Tangerine (recently recorded by Brad Jones), ready for release, but with Wherever You Are still lurking in the background.

"Again, my label situation is up in the air," David says, detailing how Nettwerk Records, which released Indiana, reshuffled earlier this year and dropped numerous artists. "I really wanted to have a record out this year, and I just wanted to keep the momentum going, too."

Obviously, more than six songs were originally recorded for Wherever You Are, but time and circumstance prompted Mead to whittle the run time down to EP size.

"I poached two songs, One Plus One and Beauty, from the original and re-recorded them for Indiana. So that left like eight or nine songs, and it felt like at that point the core of the record emotionally was really about the six songs that wound up on the EP," David reveals. "And the remaining two, (live favorite) Little Sister and Growing Up, seemed really out of context without Beauty and One Plus One to connect them to the other ones. They'll probably pop up as free downloads at some point.

"I really thought this was gonna be a strange, incongruous sort of progression coming from Indiana," he adds. "But it doesn't seem to be throwing too many people for a loop as of yet, so I guess that's a good sign. I still question (releasing Wherever You Are) occasionally. Because it does feel out of order. But it's one of those situations where you sort of have to trust where your intentions were at the time and believe that it has a place in the long run.

"I always feel like (I have) this responsibility to account for myself musically as the years go by, so I feel like I have this gap during that time period. It makes me feel good that that time is sort of accounted for now."