Less is So Much More

Michael Coomer’s post-Harlem project Lace Curtains is hard to pin down. They barely have a web presence – an opaque Twitter account and a Tumblr that’s rarely updated. Coomer’s lyrics exist somewhere in the range between playful and cryptic. The listener is often left wondering whether the lyrics are fluff or if there’s some deeper meaning to them. Songs like “Wilshire and Fairfax,” sung to the memory of Biggie Smalls, give one the impression that all the songs are all a roman à clef, an inside reference that needs further explanation. Regardless, Coomer has the ability to create evocative turns of phrase, such as “silence equals death, like a realistic fake bonsai tree” or “she might be a junkie, but it’s impolite to assume,” that paint vivid images in one’s mind.

Musically, A Signed Piece of Paper covers a broad spectrum of guitar driven pop rock, ranging from jangle pop to disco enriched dance rock to Pixies flavored punk. Infectious hooks, potential earworms all, are liberally sprinkled through out.

”Boardwalk to the Alps,” with lyrics describing the mundanities of city life with hints of dark undertones, begins with a melancholic, arpeggiated guitar line before erupting into a full blown, triumphantly jangly end section. ”Pink and Gold,” is a dreamy, droney, song about a woman who, has given up on her rock star dreams in the face of real life. It has a piercing, analytical quality akin to Lou Reed’s observational songs like “Stephanie Says.” ”Saint Vitus,” when compared to the rest of the album, is uncharacteristically heavy. However, it’s hard not to like a song that name checks the first four Metallica albums and has lyrics about hating Whole Foods.

This record ascribes to the “less is more” school of album arrangement. Consisting of nine tracks that come in at approximately thirty-one minutes in total length, there is little to no filler on this album. Due to the reticent nature of the artists involved in this project, it is hard to tell how much material was winnowed and distilled down to the final cut, but the end result more than speaks for itself.