The One Am Radio - This Too Will Pass Review
by Patrick Muldowney
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This Too Will Pass is a Zach Braff soundtrack waiting to happen. It is ideal for the independently tempered Lolita stories he seems to love so dearly. The next high school or college freshman who seduces him will like The One AM Radio, and it will be so heart wrenching as he fights his inner beast because she's just so damn mature except that she pops her gum, wears pigtails, and thinks the best necklaces are those made of candy. Stripped of imagery, This Too Will Pass is gentle background music. Hrishikesh Hirway, whose unobtrusive voice does not match the uniqueness of his name, spends the entire album trying to match the pitch of a bedtime story reading father. His chords are so unstrained, his tour recently won an award for "Least Likely to Have Tour Stopped by Laryngitis" (I'll be sending the honorary post it note during my official ceremony). Musically, the tranquility is nearly matched, except for the periodic drum sample that sounds like steam quickly released from a pipe or, better yet, the vacuum packed tennis balls when the seal first pops. Unwarranted rips aside, the music is pretty and enjoyably decompressing. The use of harmonics on "Cast Away" are tactfully melded into a string section, and, like a techno Richard Buckner, he digitally loops simple guitar notes into layered brilliance underneath synth drums during "Our Fall Apart". But for all the textures Hirway creates instrumentally, the vocals lack texture, and this is where This Too Will Pass is unimpressively short, making "In the Time We've Got" the only track truly worth merit. With a noticeable dynamic between chorus and verse, plus some harmonies to break up the flatness, this song invites some movement (spiritually and physically). Without this track, Hirway is a talented musician (and writer) without his Gibbard, and This Too Will Pass is a baby without a stork.
Tracks added to iPod: In the Time We've Got, A Brittle Filament
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