Splendid
E-zine
March 26, 2001
The White Papers are something of a busman's holiday for Lance Walker, of the Houston band Port Vale. In collaboration with DJ Jeff McLaughlin and producer Scott Garred (Silver Scooter), Walker has crafted a lovely song cycle, which apparently captures a single 32 hour period in the songwriter's life. Between the first lines ("Are you from Sweden?/I would really like to know/I didn't think you would be/but I had to think of something") and the last ("We had trouble with the locks/but we'll just blame the beach or the trains/...I'm glad I met you there...."), the record seems to tell the story of a swift, fleeting romance. It's reminiscent of Before Sunrise, the similarly-themed 1995 film with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, in which a young couple meet on a train and begin a long first date; a number of the elements are similar, including trains and the immediate, peripatetic nature of the relationship. Walker's occasionally poetic lyrics are more often prosaic bursts of description. The pairing of an acoustic guitar and a DJ doesn't produce a Beck-like bricolage; the electronics here are of the ambient variety. The most noticeable touches seem to be brief intros and bridges between songs, but the overall feel benefits from the layers of echoing background washes. These six songs, almost all of which have long instrumental passages, are woven together as one long piece of music, giving the record as a whole a floating, dream-like quality. Waking was never so good. -- rt
Space City Rock
Spring 2001
The liner notes say "we recommend headphones," and that's a fine suggestion. Not necessarily for the freaky electronic metal sounds that start off "Walk Me Up The Beach," but for the little, less up-front touches, like the way those same metal sounds turn into a wave of noise and then crumble into static before the guitars even enter. Or the hard-to-hear sample of what sounds like a guitar being unplugged in the middle of "Highbury & Islington" -- The White Papers may be only be six songs, but it's obvious that a lot of thought and care went into this EP. Both of the aforementioned tracks, by the way, are the highest of high points on a CD of nothing but; in "Walk Me Up The Beach," the combination of the jumpy, poppy melody, the droning bass, and vocalist/singer/songwriter Lance Walker's earnest, pained voice is just about perfect, and "Highbury & Islington" combines delicate guitars with a subtle organ sound and sing-song vocals for an almost spiritual, gospel-ish feel not unlike some of the Afghan Whigs stuff.
The whole thing reminds me strongly of The Secret Stars, particularly in the use of both pretty guitar-vocal melodies and odd electronics (courtesy of collaborator/producer Jeff McLaughlin, aka Houston-area DJ Jetboy), but there are no "experimental" songs on here; no full-fledged washes of noise, which may be a good or bad thing, depending on how you lean. No, this is pop at its heart, from the shimmery, kinetic guitars of "The Trains" to the beautiful strings incorporated into "Right Across The Ocean," and I'm pretty sure the aspects of this truly being showcased here are Walker's agile guitar work, desperation-filled voice, and I-know-this-means-something-but-I-can't-say-just-what lyrics. Speaking for the vocals, in particular, I should warn that people seem to either love or hate Walker's voice. I myself tend to fall in the former category -- he always sounds so plaintive and tortured, with that uncertain catch in his throat, that it draws me along every time -- but other folks might not feel the same way.
Finally, there's the lyrics, which as I understand it refer to one short period in Walker's life, and which seem, at least, to chronicle a love affair across the sea in England. I don't know the specifics, but after repeated listenings I can almost build scenes from the words and phrases, even if the details are fuzzy. And that's the point, I think -- that this is one record that definitely deserves repeated, careful listening. (JH)