5 out of 5

Label: Sire Records

Produced by: John Goodmanson

Wow fourteen years ago.  (It’s 2014 right now, ‘kay?)

So, probably like me, you really liked Flagpole Sitta, and then maybe you got tired of it.  And like many great singles, it dominated the album when you had it, though you still maybe memorized the songs, saw the concert, and would tell people it was a good disc.  Then you started listening to… I dunno, Jim O’Rourke or something and let your ‘Merrymakers’ disc get all scratched up sitting underneath your car seat and later, when you would start to download evidence of your life and strap your playlist to your penis and wave it around (I’m looking at you, mom), you totes remembered Harvey Danger and put it back into your rotating “collection” so you could prove your years-spanning eclecticism.  I’m close, right?  Also, you have a third nipple.  Incidental.

I never owned ‘Merrymakers,’ so I was sorta’ baiting you with that “like me” spiel.  Because, like me, you’ve committed murders, hate black people, and currently have your wee stuck in a an underage bum.  Right?  …That was baiting again.  You’re lucky I don’t judge racist murdering pederasts.

Anyhow, I think I was already going into Cool Mode (CM) by the time Harvey Danger’s first single hit it big, which means I was already wriggling my nose at such delights.  Banana years later, John Goodmanson’s name started popping up on various releases I was digging (Vaux, Blood Brothers), and maybe a dollar bin brought to my attention that he had worked with HD as well.  The first album of theirs I owned?  King James Version.  That makes it especially hard to go back to Merrymakers, because, yeah, it’s an average pop disc in comparison.  But if you take all of the spunk of Sitta or ‘Carlotta Valdez,’ then sprinkle some of the story-telling of ‘Jack the Lion’ over it, then run the songwriting through some kind of accelerated evolution… you come close to the goodness of KJV.  It is, very simply, one of the best pop rock albums, from start to finish, ever made.  It sits right at the boiling point of aggression to get you amped up and sweaty without tippling over into shouting teen angst – just check the raging conclusion to the snarling “You Miss the Point Completely I Get the Point Exactly” – helped, massively, by the similarly balanced lyrics of Sean Nelson, which are just snarky and honest enough to pluck at yer feelings but allow you to hold in those man tears for one song more.  And Goodmanson did a number on this.  It’s interesting – given guitar, bass and drums (like ‘Merrymakers’), his recordings have sort of a… flat richness.  Like, they sound good, they sound professional, but there’s no flourish.  But if the band brings the flourish (take a look at the multi-instrument credits of each performer on here), Goodmanson forces all the energy forefront, and instead of relying on the bells and whistles to add bells and whistles, he lets them sink deeper into the mix, underlining the core intensity of what’s already there.  As a result, whether it’s the catchy rock of single ‘Sad Sweetheart of the Rodeo,’ the soft sneer of ‘Why I’m Lonely’ or the snarky punch in the face of ‘Authenticity,’ every moment hits the sweet spot in yer ears.  (It’s the spot the punctures your ear drums instantly.  Wee!)

Yes, this was pitched to Barsuk at one point and Ben Gibbard and Grant-Lee Phillips are here, but don’t let it fool you.  This isn’t pee-boy pretend rock antics.  There’s a reason your girlfriend doesn’t have this disc in her rotation.  King James Version was light years beyond Harvey Dangers debut, and is still a as many years beyond anything similar that’s followed since… including the belated followup, which is how it tends to go when you drop a genius album.  There’s only so much to go around.  (Especially considering how much of it I use in these reviews.  Repeating the same ‘mom’ joke is genius-costly.)