Jo Gabriel is a New York-born, Midwest-settled pianist  who produces music that is quite lovely.  Really, there is nothing to dislike about her 2007 release, The Last Drive-In.  But, unfortunately, I can’t really bring myself to say many more positive things about her music.  It doesn’t feel particularly creative or captivating, and it never manages to completely grab me.  For all that, I will say that I don’t believe that Gabriel is simply going through the motions on this album; many are the moments when she injects genuine spirit into her music.  But ask any shitty hardcore band which gets up and performs the fuck out of the stage but never takes its music to the next level – spirit is not enough.

Now, Jo Gabriel is no shitty hardcore band.  She plays a brand of neo-classical piano that at times feels something like a cross between Vanessa Carlton and the 17th century, and something about her music reminds me of an instrumental Joanna Newsom.  True, the most annoying aspect of Newsom’s music (the voice… oh God, the voice…) is gone, and at times the rest of the music doesn’t even sound that similar, but there is something inescapable about this music that seems to merit the comparison.  I can’t stand Ms. Newsom, but I know that her fanbase is rather large.  If you count yourself among them, you might want to go ahead and disregard this review.

For those still reading, the album opens with “Waking the Dark,” a nearly nine-and-a-half minute ditty that fails to induce negative opinions.  Although the song is long, it is sustained by incredibly pleasant piano.  The time melts away and before you know it, the song has passed and you are enveloped in a delightfully positive envelope of being.  But, if you try to recall anything that happened, you will be utterly unable.  The truth is, you probably started searching the internet, or reading a book, or did anything besides just listening to the song.  This is background music at its fullest, but unlike much of the greatest ambient music, it was not designed to occupy the hinter regions of your brain.  Gabriel writes music that wants desperately to frequent your thoughts, but it seems incapable of drawing any sustained focus.

“Waking the Dark” is the longest song on the album, and the rest of it proceeds according to that template.  In truth, the only negative thing that one can accurately say about this album is that it has a dearth of positive things about it.  It is very pleasant music; that is all.  There is absolutely no reason to turn this album off, but neither is there an explicit reason to turn it on.  If you are particularly attuned to the piano or to classical stylings, you might want to bump the score up a few notches, but I doubt it’d soar too high.  Pleasant is great, spirit is great, but neither are enough.  Music has to be engaging to be brilliant, and this is simply not that.

-Tom Butcher