MARK MALLMAN
How I Lost My Life and Lived to Tell About it (no label)
Reviewed by Holly Day

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This was a hard album to review, partly because I love seeing Mark Mallman's live shows (as well as his previous release), and the songs on this album are just different enough from both the live renditions and his former work that it kind of threw me for a loop. The wonderful, voice-just-cracking-past-adolescence quality that marked Mallman's earlier works has been smoothed over and adultized, while the production value and instrumentation of the album itself are frighteningly professional. However, it didn't take more than a couple of listenings to completely brainwash me into loving this album, too. While Mallman's live shows have always been earmarked by his highly energetic and often violent stage antics (he's left the stage for stitches and crutches more than once), the studio tracks are subtle, subdued, controlled, and calm, belying the angry, unstable nature behind the songs' well-paced lyrics.

(This album can be purchased at www.mallman.com.)

© 2001 - Holly Day