I have an enormous amount of respect for creative people, musicians included. To someone like me who doesn’t have the patience to do anything other than make some noise with my MIDI controller, watching someone make music that actually sounds like something people would like to listen to is an incredible feat. For that reason alone it is very difficult to write something negative about a person’s work, especially when it is so obvious that he is honest in his art.

NYC/LA-based neo-folk singer/songwriter Jason Bacasa aka Tan or Boil is a perfect example of what I've just described. He makes brutally honest, stripped-to-the-bone music with his guitar and keyboards, music that is as far from being commercial as folk music could possibly be. With his half-drunk voice (I have no idea of course if he is actually drunk when recording the songs, but that is the impression I am given), Mr. Bacasa laments something that never really becomes clear to me. Is it a lost love? Is it the feeling of isolation often felt by all of us who live in a megacity? Or could it be the question of whether there is any significance in anything we do? That doesn’t really matter, as we all interpret art according to our own experiences, and I’m sure that what Jason sings about is really important to him.

While Tan or Boil make music that commands respect for its sincerity, I’m afraid there’s not much more to it than that. In the thirteen songs of Seamstress in a Suitcase, there are no experimentations or any other deviations from your average song structure. But that is not where the album fails; any such attempt would more than likely feel out of place, considering the genre Tan or Boil has chosen to serve and the approach the band has to its material. The reason the album does not work is the dull songwriting. Most songs feel incomplete and without a beginning, middle, or an end, the compositions are poor, and the vocals hardly have an impact on the listener. It could be that the music is far too depressing for someone like me to appreciate (which is obviously not the artist’s fault), but listening to some of these songs often felt like doing homework. When listening to music feels like a chore you wish you were never given, you know something went wrong.

I don’t want to write a fully negative review because this is an artist that is talented and his music has an audience as well. If you are a fan of Will Oldham and Smog you will be able to detect his ability to write songs that are personal, but at the same time can make you get lost in the little worlds he creates (see “Mannahatta Pt. 1” or “The Sea Undoes the City”). Bacasa, however, is not on the same level as the aforementioned artists, as most of his songs tend to be unfocused. He is not by any means a lost cause, though, and it would be unfair to dismiss him and his work. The talent and the desire to make music that really matters is there, without a doubt.

-John Kontos