Soft Commands
Ken Stringfellow
Yep Roc Records
Ken Stringfellow is a master of the art of what might be called cover contradiction. Rarely has so sunny an album been packaged with such a glum, disconsolate face.
That perhaps is the point of “Soft Commands,” the third solo LP from Mr. Stringfellow, a singer-songwriter from the Posies, a band that got drowned out by the noise of the Seattle grunge scene.
The songs of “Command,” pretty, midtempo, heartfelt and mostly keyboard-driven, are layered in pop greenery but eventually betray fatalism, ruefulness and a bottom-heavy view of love and romance.
Moody Bluesy and dramatic, they mask a strained optimism (“For Your Sake”), environmental ruin (“Death of a City”) and young casualties of war (“Don’t Die”).
On the lush “Any Love (Cassandra et Lune),” Cassandra, the mythical unheeded bearer of bad news, insists that “loneliness is worse than regret” without admitting the possibility of happiness.
With “When U Find Someone,” an intricate vocal production that would make Brian Wilson smile, a man vows to incinerate the entire world just to win the attention of a lost love.
Mr. Stringfellow sings in a gentle, Don McLean-ish tenor and plays piano, guitar and bass. He’s also an artful manipulator of a variety of coloration instruments, including mandolin, vibes and chimes.
The one distraction of “Commands,” the instrumental “Dawn of the Dub of the Dawn,” is a spacey experiment in dub reggae that features Gaffa Man. Mr. Stringfellow recovers immediately with the album’s must-hear track, “Cyclone Graves,” a gorgeous rumination that brings with each chorus a beefier payload of counterpoint harmonies.
Mr. Stringfellow sings his heart out, giving the illusion of contentment. Really, he’s singing about merely the concept of love, the promise it holds of making one humble and “less than useless.”
Less than useless: It’s far from walking on air, but it’s credible. The satisfying thing about “Soft Commands” is that Mr. Stringfellow so easily juggles both the high and the low, the miserable and sublime of being useful — that is, in love.
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