Clem Snide - Your Favorite Music (1999)

Eef Barzelay might be the coolest name in late 90s indie folk music. As the singer of Clem Snide, he manages to combine slow, mellow, almost understated folk with nasally, slightly laconic vocals, and utterly bizarre lyrics. It's a combination that on paper, doesn't sound very interesting.

I know for a fact that the band has serious detractors. I vividly remember an early encounter with Pitchfork, who, love or hate, have become the most important tastemakers in North American music. Pitchfork gave the album a 2.0 rating, and hated just about everything I really enjoy about it.

Unlike their albums that followed, the tone and pace of this album is slow enough for a crawl, and the music at times sounds like someone asked the band to be quiet so they wouldn't wake the neighbours. That's not to say that they don't pick up the pace for a few songs; the track I Love The Unknown comes after a few quieter and slower tracks, and rocks just enough to reinvigorate the album.

When I think of this album after a little while of not hearing it, I distinctly remember two sections: the first three and last three songs. The first three really set up the slow, folky sound that most of the album follows, but it's the last three, Messiah Complex Blues, a cover of Richie Valens' Donna, and the unlisted secret track The Water Song. Messiah is a straightforward country rock number that apparently the band wrote for Johnny Cash. While Barzelay and Cash's voices couldn't be more different, it's not hard to hear how the latter could make this song his own. Donna slows the original to a crawl, and while not a perfect cover, seems to encapsulate everything this album represents with regard to the band's sound. My favourite track, however, is the Water Song, which features a solo Barzelay and a guitar. It is a raw, imperfect track that has a genuineness that I really love.

Recently the album was rereleased on coloured vinyl, much to my excitement. However, the Water Song was unfortunately left out, and while it may be an added bonus track, I can't help but feel that the album is incomplete without it. Ending on Donna seems like there's no resolution; tonally, Donna fits right in, but thematically, it doesn't connect as well for a cover to end the album. It's almost a cop-out ending, like a movie where you find out it was all a dream.

I tried really hard to enjoy the many Clem Snide albums after this one, but the band seemingly decided the slow, subtle sound doesn't work as well as the faster, more generic folk-rock sound they adopted on subsequent albums. There's something eerily beautiful about Your Favorite Music. While not being entirely different than music of the era and after, there's really not much else quite like it.