Take one genius experimental guitar player well versed in the making of arty found-sound music and angular postrock. Cut him loose from his band, introduce him to fingerpicked guitar stylings and lush, orchestral pop production, and then leave him alone to create his masterpiece. The result? Jim O'Rourke's Eureka, an unabashedly beautiful work. --Mike McGonigal
Review by Jason Ankeny
It's a good bet to expect the unexpected with Jim O'Rourke -- no matter which hat he's wearing (solo artist, bandmate, producer, remixer, etc.), each of the endlessly prolific projects that bears his name takes on a shape and identity all its own while retaining the originality and ingenuity that have become the hallmarks of his singular body of work. Eureka is perhaps his most stunning and surprising detour yet, a full-blown excursion into lush, melodic pop; granted, there's something inherently perverse about the very notion of O'Rourke and Chicago underground cronies like trombonist Jeb Bishop and cornetist Rob Mazurek tackling such classicist stuff, but instead the album is short on irony and long on affection -- in fact, its most subversive dimension is its very real mainstream appeal. What's most fascinating about Eureka is that its big, bright pop is actually the perfect showcase for O'Rourke's mastery of sound -- highlights like the epic opener "Women of the World" and a joyously schmaltzy cover of the Bacharach/David chestnut "Something Big" are crafted with remarkable care and depth, the former in particular building and blooming in truly majestic fashion. On a conceptual level, of course, it's easy to view Eureka as another in a long line of deconstructionist experiments, a reading more overtly avant songs like "Movie on the Way Down" and "Through the Night Softly" certainly bears out; on a deeper level, however, it's a true labor of love, and its sheer exuberance and creativity go further in re-shaping the pop aesthetic than any pure intellectual exercise ever could.
Jim O'Rourke
Eureka
[Drag City]
Rating: 5.3
Buy it from Amp Camp
Download it from Emusic
I got aboard the Jim O'Rourke bandwagon with the release of the last Gastr Del Sol record, 1998's Camoufleur, a beautiful album boasting O'Rourke's amazing, mundane production. Since then, I've been digging his other work with that band, his 1997 release, Bad Timing, and the Sonic Youth and Jim O'Rourke EP. So, let's be honest. You and I both know this guy can do anything with sound-- anything. His production work on Sam Prekop's recent solo outing proves it. So why, then, is Eureka such an awful disappointment?
Eureka kicks off on a bad note, and manages to stay there for the majority of this album, despite a couple of diamonds in the 'ol rough. "Prelude to 110 or 220/ Women of the World" is without a doubt one of the most nauseatingly repetitive songs on the face of this green Earth. "Through the Night Softly" is the ending- credits- of- "Saturday Night Live" song G.E. Smith never wrote. The album's moogy title cut makes a nice companion on a lonely summer night, but towards the five minute mark (the full song lasts just over nine minutes), it starts to drag a bit. And the cover of Burt Bacharach's "Something Big," while probably one of the better versions of this song available, has proven too quirky for repeated listens.
Don't get me wrong. The record definitely has its moments. "Ghost Ship in a Storm" is a prime O'Rourke cut, meaty, juicy and cooked to delicious perfection. "Movie On the Way Down" becomes a gorgeous arrangement of sonic love, but only after more than three minutes of wanky experimentalism. "Please Patronize Our Sponsors" is a harmonious instrumental piece that'd make an excellent soundtrack for a day at the Lincoln Park Zoo. And the album's closer, "Happy Holidays," leaves you with a feeling not unlike the one I'm sure the Teletubbies experience in the "orgasm from the windmill" segment of every show.
In the end, the thing that brings the album down is that its instrumental pieces seem to lack the same direction as the ones on previous Gastr Del Sol records, and that there are just so many of them. If those tracks were cut down to a decent length and balanced against the vocal pieces, this album might actually sound terrific. But the way it stands, Eureka's a bit on the boring side.
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