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by casey best (happyhobo) / chris earnhart (Pocket) - Mar 01, 2005
The Double Standard Practice - Beautiful Music for Ugly People Review #1 - Casey Best As mood music goes, The Double Standard Practice is great. When I tried my first listen, it was about midday and I was just checking e-mails. At that time, I thought that the album was mediocre. Luckily, I took my second listen as I went for a solo walk; immediately, the CD seemed much more fitting. The mellow cymbals and drums, repetitive quiet guitar, and smooth vocals seem perfect for anyone who's feeling particularly introspective. My standout favorites are the back-to-back tracks "Don't Let Go" and "Drop Me." "Don't Let Go" is one of the faster tracks on the album, and immediately stands out on the album for this reason. "Drop Me" features muted keyboards and is perfect for any late-night walk among electric lights--trust me. At eighteen tracks, I found that the CD started to wear thin about half-way through, but that just means that one can come back to it later and start where they left off. I'd recommend this album to anyone who likes introspective and mellow singer-songwriters like Elliott Smith. Review #2 - Chris Earnhart The Double Standard Practice is a singer-songwriter named Mike Clayton with an acoustic guitar, drums, and occasionally a few other instruments. And beautiful music for ugly people is an album with slow, interesting music and slower vocals. The first thing that struck me about this album is that it felt very long. Upon further investigation, I found this to be due to the slow and almost too relaxing feel of all the tracks combined with the fact that there are eighteen of them. While the instrumentation changes between songs, it changes very little within songs, with almost every track having a very slow progression. Furthermore, while the singer has a great, soothing voice, the vocals change little throughout the whole album. My favorite track ends up being "i think i left the keys on the table in the hall," which was a joint project with other local singer-songwriter, Dave King. It is still slow, but the addition of flavorful percussion and new vocals makes it stand out. Mike Clayton's obvious skill makes me want to check out his other project, Mad Science Fair, but this album is much too slow and vocally homogenous for me. If you like slower singer-songwriter stuff, though, then you should check out Double Standard Practice as the talent is there. It is only when the album is taken as a whole that problems arise. |