Eugene Edwards: My Favorite Revolution

When you hear lots of music, it’s easy to get jaded. Yet now and again, something stands out as exceptional. Eugene Edwards’ My Favorite Revolution is one such surprise. Out of Los Angeles emerges clean melodic pop that manages effectively to capture the simple happy ebullience of the “new wave” sound of the early-’80s, mixing in ’60s references while still presenting something refreshing and original.

Perhaps it’s no coincidence that 1980 was when the young Eugene Edwards first fell in love with rock music. From his bedroom in Yuma, Arizona, Edwards would play guitar along with his stereo. After a succession of high school bands, he journeyed east to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where his love of pop didn’t quite fit in with the “jazz atmosphere” surrounding the place at the time. After one semester, Edwards was out touring with a band again. In 1996, he landed in Los Angeles where, after playing guitar in a couple of roots trios, he started writing his own material.

On this debut album, there’s a healthy helping of this material — 14 songs, in fact (and no filler). The last song is just as engaging as the first. On the album, the talented Edwards plays all instruments but drums (those are handled well by Mike “Soupy” Sessa). The resulting sounds are uncluttered, engaging and a melodic delight (thanks in part to fine production and engineering by Dave Peterson).

The CD opens with “Your Own Nightmare”, a great up-tempo number about a fair mess of a woman who once managed to get by on the good graces of face and body, but now finds she’s slipping away. Luckily, she’s got a friend keeping tabs on this descent’s progression: “I’m keeping track of all the things you said you’d never do / You had a dream come true, now you behave like your own nightmare”.

One of my favorites here is “It Doesn’t Get Better Than This”, a 2:35 bit of pop perfection that recalls early Elvis Costello (with a far smoother voice) and a hint of that sort of instantly familiar aspect of a Nick Lowe. Like his British counterparts, Edwards can find an infectious tune and spin it around astute lyrics that are fun to learn and sing: “Washington detectives have their theories / Somehow they turned a small game into a whole series / And I’m still searching for a pop hit or miss / It doesn’t get better than this”. Edwards displays an acumen for smart lyrics that is as appealing as his songwriting.

“Congratulations, My Darling” recalls the sort of sweet friendly jangle of Gary Lewis & the Playboys’ “This Diamond Ring”. This is sweet guitar-laden advice being doled out to a young woman in NYC, the kind of melodic, well-crafted song not heard very often anymore.

The pace slows for “Next Time You Go”, a dulcet sort of “noir ballad” that highlights Edwards’s vocals. Again, it has me thinking back to fine crooners from an earlier time: Johnny Maestro, Gary Puckett, Burton Cummings, the early Alex Chilton, etc. The swelling harmonies at the song’s end cap the fine arrangement superbly.

Providing an instant contrast, the pace revs up considerably with “At Your Place”, a rave up about a broken relationship that would fit well into the lineup on Costello’s Get Happy. Three verses fly by in a mere minute and a half, and clever wordplay is all over this one: “Don’t think that you’re all alone at your place / I can’t get past the dial tone to your place / I guess I should give back this key; the stupid thing still comforts me / Are you keeping present company at your place?”

There is no shortage of infectious tunes at the ready here, but “All About You” stands out as particularly catchy. This is the proud man declaring how he’ll let the world know all about his wonderful love in a song where the harmonies are sweet and the chorus imminently sing-able (another radio-ready delight).

Edwards veers off a little into mid-tempo Southern rock with “Telling That Lie Again”. With a little bit of bar rock bravado and country flair, he not only nails it stylistically, but does so with a really good song: “Eating my own words become a steady diet / And as a rule of thumb, I don’t suggest you try it, oh I’ve been telling that lie again”.

It’s back to pretty Brit-pop, chiming guitars and new age sensibility with “Shattered Flower”, the tale of a woman lost in wondering and quick to play the blame game. “Victim at Bedtime” examines a woman who falls for the wrong man time and again (thinking him sweet when he’s not drinking): “It won’t be long before she finds a new creep again / The natives are restless, she puts them back to sleep again / There’s a kind of man she’s bound to see again / It’s a long way home from under the family tree again”.

Back in the ’60s, the radio was full of melodic gems — groups like the Guess Who, the Grass Roots, and others found hits with tracks that clocked in at under three minutes. Eugene Edwards is a kindred spirit to that kind of music. His pleasant “I’d Like to Think So” is yet another winner — this one about a man wondering about what has become of his first true love, wishing her good things. A brief harmony-laced coda to this song is featured later in the CD.

In “Not That Kind of a Girl”, Edwards takes a look at one girl through the eyes of another, jealous and resentful but incapable of acting on anything. The stutter-step ballad “I’ll Be True (Someday)” is an out-loud confession from a guy who’s gone and blown a relationship: “The upside to all this time / The upside is I’m free / The downside to all this pride / The downside is that I can’t see what it’s done to me”.

The title track (featuring some fine Sessa drum work) is a celebration of music (in our hearts and our dreams), a love song to vinyl through to CDs: “So drop the needle there’s a song to be sung / When the tables turn baby, it’s my favorite revolution”.

The CD closes with “Permanent One”, a rocking anthem for annoying types who stay at parties as long as the wine holds up: “Why don’t you come and harass me, the party’s getting in gear and I’m the permanent one / I feel like being a bit nasty / I saw your boyfriend leave and now I’m the permanent one”. Here Edwards lets loose with a little extra guitar finesse and Sessa is there with the steady cowbell egging him on.

Eugene Edwards lands on the scene as a talent to be reckoned with, if we’re to judge by this stellar debut. His songs are infectious, his lyrics engaging. All told, My Favorite Revolution is 45 minutes of sheer musical delight featuring well-crafted songs that hearken back to a simpler, more melodic time. It’s a fair bet Mr. Edwards’s abilities won’t remain unknown for very long — and I look forward to what I hope will be a long career to come.