Suburban
Speed

Jim O’Rourke is one of those rare musicians who is at home with many different styles and genres. Although as his previous album The Visitor was a single instrumental piece, this means that Simple Songs is the first new collection of “songs” he has released since Insignificance in 2001.
Not that O'Rourke has been idle of course, as he is constantly in demand as a mixer and arranger, and he was also a fifth member of Sonic Youth between 1999 and 2005. Since then he has based himself in Tokyo, spending a lot of time in a studio called the Steamroom which - as well as being the place where most of Simple Songs was recorded - has also spawned a huge series of Jim's bandcamp-only releases which range between anything from drone rock to soundtrack work.
Simple Songs belies its name, as it is a collection of eight songs which are deliciously complex; full of lush arrangements, caustic lyrics, shifting time signatures and clever chord changes. They are definitely “songs” though, and the although this record works within the same sonic palette as The Visitor, it may have more in common with O'Rourke's recent Burt Bacharach tribute release than any of his more experimental albums.
Another crucial difference between this record and its predecessor is that, whilst O'Rourke played everything on The Visitor and painstakingly assembled it afterwards, Simple Songs features an ensemble of Japanese musicians. The arrangements are worth the price of admission alone, with O'Rourke's guitars entwining beautifully in the mix, and the piano parts from Eiko Ishibashi rippling over the top of the large group.
O'Rourke's vocal style has changed over the years and here he manages to sound both raw and subdued, particularly over the pedal steel and acoustic guitar of 'These Hands', which is also the quietest piece here. With the exception of the closing verse on 'Hotel Blue' where he really lets go, his voice is not prominent in the mix, to such an extent that the lyrics are not that obvious on the first few plays. The richness of the music is the first thing you notice here, but once you lean in and pay attention to those half-sung words the album gains another dimension.
Perhaps there is a clue in a title such as 'Half Life Crisis', as the lyrical focus of Simple Songs seems to be the mischievous grumbling of a middle-aged man. "You can tell by your face that you're a charity case and your debt is piling up" is an example of his caustic lyrics. The song itself has a Seventies singer-songwriter vibe – think Nilsson, Randy Newman – and it comes across as a complex take on Easy Listening.
Those lush arrangements continue throughout the album. The syncopated rhythms of 'That Weekend' contrast well with the melodic violin parts and the song ends up as a kind of baroque-pop piece. 'Last Year' is a busy, jazz-rock track where drummer Yamamoto Tatsuhisa really excels, and there are some more barbed lyrics - "He's a real pioneer, hasn't moved an inch in the last year, the man's an artist, he's committed to his craft... not to be heartless I think he does it for a laugh.”
In the same way as the album subverts its title by creating such complex songs, often the songs themselves are not what their title suggests. The opening track, ‘Friends With Benefits’ is the perfect example of this. "I am friends with so many of the dead who already take up space in my head" he sings, over one of the strongest tunes here – the guitar lines are classic rock, while the piano is just beautiful.
The album closes with the similarly impressive ‘All Your Love’, which comes across as a big ballad and may seem like a love song, but the refrain of "all your love will never change me" reveals the truth of it.
Simple Songs is impressive on many levels. It sounds great, and the intricate arrangements mean that every time you come back to the songs, they reveal something new. Most of all it gives a glimpse of the contradictions which make Jim O’Rourke so fascinating. On the album cover he is a portrait of aloofness, smoking, with his back to the camera. Yet this is also the man posts messages on his bandcamp page urging people to listen at the highest quality possible, and in fact promotional downloads of this album were wav only. Simple Songs deserves that treatment, this is widescreen music, not for background listening.