It has long been said that man’s reach far exceeds his grasp. We are a people all about innovation and change or the next big thing. That is the reason we heinously let things slip under the radar sometimes. It is easy to get so caught up in how there are artists out there changing the face of music – reaching out into the future and feeling around the darkness for a concept to clasp onto – that a release like Ten Readings of a Warning by All Smiles may only warrant a skimming over on the way to another project.

All Smiles is the work of former Grandaddy guitarist Jim Fairchild, and with its airy passages and lighthearted songwriting, it could glide right by you if you’re not careful. But one thing is for sure, Fairchild only reaches for what he is sure he can latch onto. For that reason, this effort may only show up as a minor blip on the sonar, but it deserves much more than passivity.

With his solo project, Fairchild proves himself to be an accomplished but laid-back songwriter independently of his former band. It takes a confident artist to let his songs do the walking and talking. These Ten Warnings are quaint little explorations by Fairchild that read more like ten short stories that cohesively come together to create a novel of his experiences. All are simple acoustic or piano-driven melodies that are so deceptively effortless that they swirl around your head like inflated helium globes before floating into the stratosphere. You could reach out and grab the string, but forcing a freewheeling thing like this to stay grounded is doing an injustice to its liberating flight. Fairchild crafts a delicate album that never forces itself or outreaches its own bounds. Call it thrifty, call it fragile, but in this case, less means more.

As important as subtlety can be, it is funny how few artists really appreciate and understand it. For Fairchild, who crafted these songs rather frugally, with contributions from a who’s who of performers (Joe Plummer of Modest Mouse, Janet Weiss of Sleater-Kinney, Danny Seim of Menomena to name a few), this is a songwriter’s album by a natural songwriter. If you are looking for another Grandaddy release you might as well stop because they are no longer together.

Gone is his previous band’s electronic finagling, in place of conciseness and cohesion. Fairchild never let’s an idea dwell too long in the same place, but rather substitutes song brevity which bears repeated listening. As delicate and fragile as this album is, it’s melodious enough to give it two sturdy legs to stand on. Fairchild measured his reach perfectly, and achieved just what he set out to achieve on this one, and the proof is in the restrained confidence.

All Smiles MySpace Page
Dangerbird Records