4 out of 5

Label: Beatville

Producer: John Congelton

Requires good headphones.

This circulated in and out of my collection.  I picked it up because of Johnny C’s production but found the songs wanting, the pic of the troubadour dude on the front cover (main Budapest fixture Keith Killoren, I assume) matching the music a little too well and the songwriting I could appreciate butting up against some sometimes silly lyrics.  It left for a while, then I put it through a listen again with expectations in tow and realized it was pretty good – well composed tracks, and that silliness is at least consistent in the style.  But I never found myself wanting to listen to it.  So here we are again, one more go, with different headphones emphasizing the low end (generally a good idea for Congleton’s production) and it’s surprisingly richer than I gave it credit for, which adds much warmth to the songs.  I think the record IS quite impressive, I’ll just have to settle with it really being not my thing.  Cheeky – mm, orchestral pop? – has its place, but the specific combination of Killoren’s theatric delivery backed up by a cabaret-eque sensibility to the whole affair, mixed up in a pot with Congleton’s leanings toward a gospel echo to his recordings (not having heard other Budapest One discs I can’t say if that aspect previously existed) and – from the Allmusic review, a concept with which I agree – an open-mic night feel to ‘clever’ imagery in the lyrics being read off a pad while Killoren sweats in his specifically selected suit.

But you can see how forgiving I am with those four stars, yes?  ‘Cause again, it’s all surprisingly well done, and I don’t mind listening to it at all.  The consistency of the presentation helps, and its not overly clever or cute, meaning that while it’s a shtick, it comes across pretty naturally, which reduces the shtickiness.  And with those good headphones (or ones that allow clarity when focused on the rumbly low end) there are a lot of fun production tricks going on – a  slight crackle and wonderful reverb to ‘Stormy Weather,’ for example, and an overall well-handled balance of switching between Killoren’s prominent guitar strum and a focus on an ongoing slew of key twinkling.  Many of the tracks hover at an average range, none really sticking out as notable singles, but again, this sort of helps the disc to sit in the player on repeat without getting boring.

Great background music, probably great foreground music for people who dig the specific style.