It is hard to imagine a more pressure-filled situation than crafting a debut album-except that of Nate Johnson, whose album is also the first offering from Two Cities Media, a Racine-based label created by Johnson and collaborator Travis Gaastra. How To (Make a Pop Album In Ten Days) is an admirable acoustic pop effort in the face of that challenge.
The 20-year-old Johnson's decision to keep the album primarily acoustic is an interesting one. Johnson's lyrics, which are typical pop-both vague and personal at the same time, really mesh well with the easy-going, friendly sound and acoustic guitar creates Johnson's vocal performance is the kind of messy, sliding informality that would fit with that style.
On the other hand, some of his deliveries set up a proverbial beat (or bass line) to drop that never quite does. This is the case in a lot of Johnson's slightly more up-tempo pieces, like \You'll Never Be Mine."" The start of the third verse comes charging in, ""Now you've gone and broke my heart,"" but instead of really breaking loose, the song returns to lighter vocals. While this may be a momentary letdown, an angry, vengeful outburst wouldn't fit the reflective tone of Johnson's album.
In addition, Johnson's vocal quality suggests some of the songs may have been at the upper end of his range, and that's laid bare due to a lack of additional instrumentation. Of course, that's mostly a result of the album's production-or lack thereof. A common complaint about modern music is that many songs sound overproduced and formulaic, as though the vocalists are no more alive than the mix boards.
That can certainly be the case. Johnson's do-it-yourself bare-bones approach has the allure of sounding real-however, it also has a downside: it sounds real, flaws and all.
Approaching the album as a sum of its parts, How To (Make a Pop Album In Ten Days) is a series of tracks chronicling the fallout of a relationship. While this results in some stagnant lyrics (the number of times Johnson uses ""girl"" in his songs is mind-blowing), it does create an interesting psychological thread throughout. For example, seeing his ex with a new guy produces dismay, denial, self-pity and finally a form of acceptance.
With this kind of material, it's either your cup of emo or it's not-but as a larger project, the album is an intriguing exercise. There are some definite gems that will latch your brain-""Please Don't Let Me Down"" and ""Last Night"" especially-but more importantly, the music is easy to listen to and is infused with honesty and enthusiasm. If nothing else, those factors are enough to make How To worthwhile.
