"You want sex, but you don't understand what comes next, well is it Tina or Rex?"
Those are one of the first lines of lyrics you hear when you listen to the debut, self-titled album of Paxton, the newest name signed to Nemperor Records. He enters the solo world renowned as a wonderful storyteller by many, or at least by the head of Nemperor Records.
Unfortunately, judging by the aforementioned line and the many like it scattered throughout the 38-minute album, Paxton is no John Mellencamp or Tom Waites when it comes to language to accompany his music.
On the whole, Paxton's music is unique and, at times, extremely engrossing and intriguing. But a continuous theme runs through all 12 tracks on the set: the lyrics are not good. At all.
The "You want sex..." lyric is from the first track on the album in a song entitled "Which Way Do You Go?" The opening tune has a driving beat and a wonderful bridge section which distracts you away from the questionable lyrics which permeate track one.
It seems as though, throughout the debut album, Paxton is merely trying to address issues that are popular and/or "hip."
The second song, "I'm Not Like Everybody Else," is exceedingly better than the first, perhaps only because the lyrics were written by the Kinks and not by Paxton himself. He continues to show off his musical abilities with rhythmic accuracy and a nice melodic tune.
Track three, "So Into You," is a catchy, very clever playlet which sounds like a combination of a simple Beatles melody and cosmic sounds. It is one of the highlights of the album, and a rather cheery diversion.
His own story, however, is a sad yet inspiring one. After being orphaned at age 12, he lived on the streets. He found work in a fish-packing plant, amongst other places, but always carried his guitar and fake ID to perform his story songs wherever possible.
All that practice did him little good on track four, "John and Joe" as he sounds more like a bad infomercial than Cat Stevens or Lou Reed. It is a shame because the discordant harmonies are brilliant.
My thoughts on the album continued to plummet as the fifth track seemed to be a rip-off of both the Beatles' "Blackbird" and the Everly Brothers. It is a short ditty entitled "Wake Up Little Birdy" which lacks the cohesiveness and unity that it needs to be successful.
His sixth and eighth tracks, "Fatherless Sons" and "Number One," respectively, continue in Paxton's two major flaws on the album. The urgency to find hot topics to write about and his inability to express these topics in a musical manner. It seems he is merely singing his message to a tune rather than uniting the two.
The ninth song on the disc is far and away his best. Titled "All in the Past," it features a sitar which makes this laid-back ballad the most innovative and most unified work on the album.
Just when you thought things were getting better, though, the tenth track came on and what was described in the liner notes as "funky, with urban sensibilities." It sounded more like the theme song from television's "Mad About You" and left the listener bewildered. Its title, "Huh?" could not have been more apropos.
The twelfth and final track is representative of the entire work. "Slammed" has a catchy sing-song tune with a very good chorus section with, once again, questionable lyrics. He attempts to wax poetic on phrases like "politically correct." Yet another good melody ruined.
Paxton has the potential to go far in the music business, if he can convince someone to write lyrics to accompany his wonderful musical faculties. If not, there's always karaoke, where the words are already written for you.
