Reviewsic [ri-vyoo-zik] -noun: Music worth talking about

One of the best things that can happen in the music scene is for a band or musician to last. Having worked in local music for the past six years, I’ve stumbled upon hundreds of bands that I loved from the onset but was forced to mourn their early retirement from music. It’s not easy to devote the time and effort that is required to make sure your music maintains a sense of vitality, especially on a local level where everyone is starting from scratch. With all the new music coming out on the Internet, coffee shops turned concert venue and increase of musical ADD thanks to the instant gratification digital downloading gives us, its really easy for a musician to get lost in the shuffle and disappear. However, somewhere down in southern Illinois, a place most people probably don’t think of when thinking about where to find a music scene, singer/songwriter Owen Pye has managed to maintain an audience and put out records for about as long as I’ve been talking about them.
I remember hearing Owen’s music for the first time as a stream on Myspace (You know, back when Myspace was still a vital and relevant tool for musicians- may it rest in peace) and finding his earnest vocals and simple strumming absolutely charming. Now, so many years later, I’m pleased to report that Owen Pye is still playing and thriving as a musician.
Recently signing with Blackroom Records, Owen has wasted no time getting his next musical offering out to fans with the new full-length entitled, The Truth About Man. Following up his last release, the 2009 self-titled record from his full band project, Owen Pye & the Sunday School Band, The Truth About Man maintains the same confessional nature that Pye’s work as always possessed. A songwriter who wears his heart on his sleeve, Pye tends to share personal stories of regret, discontentment and admits his own mistakes with very little hesitance.
In this newest work the running theme seems to be a man who his grappling with his faith, not necessarily denouncing it, but more or less trying to reconfigure how religion fits into his life. “Freewill” sings about doubting ones own ability to exercise that attribute virtuously and wondering aloud if walking away from God means you can’t go back with lines like, “I’ve been running/I’ve been hiding/I make decisions on my own/I’ve been straying from your right and just path/I guess I’m on my own”. Similarly doubtful is “Pharisee of the State”, where Pye sings about distrusting an ambiguous ‘You’ with his problems and “This Morning”, in which our narrator talks about waking up without meaning and searching for answers. Lyrics in The Truth About Man seem to flip flop between being about finding one’s place with God and finding a place among one’s fellowman, of which I’m not sure if it’s a pattern or an inconsistency. Over analyzing lyrics is a quick way to ruin a record but with Pye’s previous reputation for clever comparison and relatable one liners, I feel like his choice in writing songs that appear to be more centralized is important to take note of. When put up against Pye’s past records, I would say that lyrically The Truth About Man doesn’t stand very tall but fortunately Owen’s instrumental choices make up for what his words seem to lack.
The Truth About Man revs up with a megaphone shouted intro that is accompanied by raucous rock n’ roll style guitar riffs in “Keep on Sinning” before sliding back into Pye’s traditional light croon, which gives the impression that this record will carry an edge that his previous work has not. Unfortunately, instead of carrying on with that gritty game changer The Truth About Man becomes more docile in his following tracks. However, that’s not to say that this record lacks any strength in its instrumentation. “Pharisee of the State” does have a great kick drum/piano combination going into its melody and is accompanied by a stuttering guitar line that builds into the perfect crescendo. The easy acoustic strumming heard in “This Morning”, “If I Give my Soul” and “The Part” is a return to the Owen Pye I’ve always known and of all the songs on The Truth About Man, feel the most natural. I do appreciate the exploration of a bigger sound that comes from some of the other tracks but simple acoustics seems to be the best pairing for Pye’s peaceful, unassuming vocals.
The one major flaw I found in this record was the lack of diversity in Owen’s vocal patterns. Save for the female accompaniment that shakes up “If I Give my Soul” and the shouts of “Keep on Sinning”, almost every harmony and melody sounds the same. Generally I give Mr. Pye points for originality and catchy choruses, but The Truth About Man definitely lacks both. I feel as though the focus of this record was put on instrumental arrangements, which definitely shine through as an improvement for Owen, but when writing The Truth About Man, it may have been better if he’d removed the horse blinders. In its entirety this newest release from the Midwesterner is pretty safe. There aren’t any truly stand out moments within its nine tracks, be they good or bad and in comparison to Owen Pye’s previous records, The Truth About Man lacks the ability to leave much of an impression.

Read our past interview with Owen, along with a review of his previous record, Owen Pye & the Sunday School Band