Lo-Fi Guitar Pop-Rock… What more do you want?
Ben Kweller wanted to create a musical experience reminiscent of nineteen-sixties rock music. What is the best way to do this? To record in exactly the same manner as back in the ‘golden days’. ‘The Rules’ is the first single from Kweller’s second album, ‘On My Way’.
The lo-fi, sixties sound is evident from the offset; a monstrous overdriven sound bursts into the opening seconds of the song, before disappearing and slowly rebuilding itself under the vocals of the first verse. Kweller’s vocal style manages to project the ‘rock and roll’ sound that seems ever-present in so much modern alternative music, but does so without resorting to the strangled howling of bands like Jet; until the final thirty seconds of the song, that is. This allows the vocals to retain a fragile sound that perfectly describes the lyrical content of the piece.
In true nineteen-sixties style, the entire song is built on the original riff, with sustained chords punctuating the words of the chorus. It is the kind of piece that creates images of long hair, tight jeans and a bottle of whisky. Nothing seems to hang around for long in this song meaning that the sound is never too thin or shallow.
At the end of verse two, Kweller’s voice hints at the impending vocal explosion, but drops back down to ‘mellow’ with “Show me all the rules, girl..”. Your classic nineteen-sixties overdriven guitar solo arrives in the middle of the song, complete with the essential string bends and double-stops. The song ends back with the powerful guitars and Kweller’s now sneering, violent vocals, emotion spilling from the rock and roll whisky bottle.
Kweller and company have created a song that is both gentle and abrasive, both pretty and ugly. ‘The Rules’ is successful in taking you back to the lo-fi recording sound and is an infectious pop-rock tune that deserves all the credit it receives.