WALTER SCHREIFELS - An Open Letter To The Scene

Alt-country is winning converts. It even manages to draw in seasoned artists who have always sailed in very different waters. Such is the case with Walter Schreifels, a New Yorker transplanted to Berlin with a solid background in hardcore and twenty years of career behind him, now making his solo debut.

Experience leads him to choose a mediated path, in which American folk sonorities blend with a typically European sense of melody, and a touch of British style that coats the final result in a clever but far from obvious pop sheen.

The album works, turning Schreifels into a sort of genetic-musical hybrid of Tom Petty and Jeff Tweedy. Listen to "Shootout" and "Don't Gotta Prove It" if you don't believe it, and then tell me whether you think Walter doesn't have a Wilco poster hanging in his living room. Incidentally, the former bears clear traces of acoustic Neil Young, while the latter is a reworking of a song written a few years earlier for CIV, one of the bands the author played in.

The tracklist also includes another cover: "Society Suckers", originally by Agnostic Front, rendered here with the same spirit as Nirvana's unplugged incarnation.

And then the record also serves up the boundless prairies of "Save The Saveables" and "Wild Pandas", the caramel pop of "She Is To Me", the perfectly rounded indie of "Requiem", the drive of "Ballad Of Lil'Kim", the tribute to the Love frontman in the opening "Arthur Lee's Lullaby", and the intense closing ballad "Open Letter".

"An Open Letter To The Scene" reveals a sensitive, up-to-date songwriter, determined to change course after so many years spent on the barricades and to set off decisively toward new, calmer horizons - without losing any of their effectiveness. Could it be the greater peace of mind that comes with maturity?

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04/07/2010