Josh Rouse
Nashville (Rykodisc)
by Marc Hirsh

originally published in Amplifier, March-April 2005

With a title like Nashville, Josh Rouse’s latest album sets up expectations that it never quite matches, sounding a lot more like mid-’70s El Lay singer/songwriter pop than anything listeners usually associate with Music City, U.S.A. In a way, that turns Nashville into a puzzle without a solution, as it’s tempting to latch onto elements like the pedal steel in “It’s The Nighttime” and the strings in “Sad Eyes” in an effort to convince yourself that Rouse is attempting his own Sea Change here. Instead, he’s really just putting over some low-key songs with some low-key arrangements, with “Why Won’t You Tell Me What” sounding like Aimee Mann’s “Momentum” without the, y’know, momentum and “Winter In The Hamptons” channeling the Smiths or (thanks to the “ba da da ba ba” refrain that kicks it off) Ivy. At best, Nashville could have come across like a modern spiritual cousin of Joni Mitchell or Steely Dan. Instead, it’s closer to the antiseptic ’70s pop that allowed Joni Mitchell and Steely Dan to fly under the radar and make it onto radio in the first place.

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