MICE PARADE - Bem-Vinda Vontade

Mice Parade (aka Adam Pierce: the moniker under which his work is released is an anagram of his name) must have noticed the prolific streak his songwriting had hit with the release of "Obrigado Saudade" last year. Hence, presumably, his decision not to take a well-earned break, but to keep on writing.

The result is that today, a year on, he's back with this new album, "Bem-Vinda Vontade".

What's changed in that year? Two things stand out immediately: the first is that Pierce's sound is less and less that of a (post-rock) band and more and more that of a (post-rock) singer-songwriter; the second is the abandonment of the previous album's lacerated, lacerating atmosphere in favour of gentler, more measured tones.

Mice Parade stays in Brazil, but no longer plays "saudade" - it plays running and strolling along the beach, chasing a kite (or at least memories of one).

Structurally, though, the protagonist of every track remains, as ever, the trademark: Pierce's guitar.

It's the guitar, in fact, that opens and closes the album, with the gentle unfolding of the sparse "Warm Hand in Farmland" and "Ende".

And it's the guitar that leads the dance on the single, "Nights Wave", a duet with Kristin Anna Valtysdottir of Mùm (an experiment already tried and successfully pulled off in the past) - a delightful post-rock ballad, nocturnal and ethereal, which also boasts two other familiar hallmarks: a refined arrangement that never overreaches, and a melodic sweep worthy of the greats.

It's the most conventional and expected modus operandi, and we find it in "The Days Before Fiction", another lengthy ballad with extended instrumental passages: this time, though, the alchemy doesn't come off, and the track ends up among the weaker ones of the bunch.

Fresh elements are instead brought by "Passing & Galloping", the most rock-oriented track, a shoegaze guitar workout with drums free to hit hard; and "Steady as She Goes", a semi-instrumental piece carried by a "thrilling" guitar.

Bridging the two souls of instrumentalist and songwriter, along with the post-rock networks that bind them, is "Waterslide", which gathers, through constant shifts in mood and sound, all the elements of Pierce's work (delicate piano and synth arrangements, touching, immediate melody, guitar phrasing, post-rock drift).

So much for the "mere" formal (and spiritual) content of "Bem-Vinda Vontade".

If instead we want to consider the matter of quality, the positive judgments on the former Dylan Group member's inspiration only hold up halfway.

The limitation of this new work lies in its failure to really drive the point home.

The whole thing is pleasant, but often, within the same track, Pierce seems to lose the thread, alternating moments of emotion with moments of aimlessness. This isn't to say that making a record with gentler, more subdued tones is objectively and/or in principle better than making a more conflicted one.

The same delicacy can, in theory, cut just as deep as "saudade": it's just that in practice, on this record, that doesn't happen, or doesn't happen beyond a certain point.

The result is an enjoyable record, but one that ultimately implodes.

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29/12/2009