Sparse Inspiration

With Post-Rock giants Tortoise, David Pajo served a vital role playing guitar and helping to shape some of the band’s greatest efforts. Since his departure he has continued to pursue the world of instrumental music, but he has also stretched his legs becoming a songwriter and a vocalist. On his newest album entitled Pajo, David attempts to craft 45 minutes of sublime textural electro-acoustic pop music, often with mixed resultsIn general, the album lacks magic and is plagued with a lot of filler. However, there are moments of inspiration that make you scratch your head and as why it occurs so sparsely. The strongest song on the album, “Mason Twins” finds Pajo displaying his knack for enhancing a song’s mood with simple instrumentation. In the beginning, soothing arrangements blend with Pajo’s hushed voice and gorgeous vocal melody in a Simon and Garfunkle fashion. Midway through the song he introduces glistening percussion, which only heightens its beauty. Not as successful is the rather monotonous “War Is Dead,” which offers no delicate flourishes just a repetitive, dirty groove with unimpressive vocals. The rest of the album, aside from the highly textural spoken word “Francie” follows suit and tends to drag on without any interesting qualities.

There are moments on Pajo when one cone could envision David Pajo becoming a very dynamic songwriter. But the majority of it just seems to fizzle out, sounding like a bad rendition of the late Elliott Smith. On the first few Tortoise albums, Pajo proved that he was a gifted instrumentalist, but he has yet to prove himself as a truly gifted songsmith.