Richard X. Heyman
Tiers/ And Other Stories
(Turn-Up)
[Rating: 3 stars]
Power Pop fans probably will recognize Heyman’s name for his well-received but not commercially successful albums he did in the late’80s and early ‘90s. Although rather quiet over the last decade, he has returned in a big way: A 31-song, double-disc concept project. The first disc, Tiers, looks back at his courtship of his now-wife as well as his search for rock stardom in Los Angeles, while the second disc, Other Stories, offers – as the name suggests – other stories from his life.
Heyman crafts a very full sound on this home studio effort, on which he plays 20 instruments. The first thing long-time fans will notice, however, is that his main instrument here is the piano, not the guitar. As a result, he sounds like a far less astringent Warren Zevon with some touches of Randy Newman and Brian Wilson on this disc.
Despite this stylistic shift, Heyman still retains is a fine sense of pop craftsmanship, with this 2-disc set is dotted with marvelously melodic tunes. On the Tiers side, the standouts include the twangy tune, “Good To Go” and the upbeat travelogue “Fire In The Country.” With “One Thing I Still Have,” one of the rare guitar-flavored tracks, he serves up a sunny Sixties-style love ode while “Golden In This Town” is a soulful, somewhat Stevie Winwood-like number.
“Game Stays The Same” reveals some of the project’s strengths and weaknesses. This buoyant Brian Wilson-esque song about L.A., the song also contains a spoken word reading of a letter that Heyman wrote to his girlfriend, which comes off feeling somewhat awkward and overly personal. In fact, the disc often feels too much a personal story. For example, “The Real Deal,” about trying to make it as a musician, is weighed down by too much exposition.
The second disc similarly contains some top-flight tunes as well as some (mostly the more orchestral pop ballads) that fade into the background. Tracks like “When Willy Played Guitar” (honoring to a now-deceased old friend/bandmate) and the uptempo “Branded In The Sky” stand out among the Other Stories, with “No Time To Rest On Sunday” and “The Day Before Tomorrow” also being strong efforts. One of the most moving tracks is “The Finish Line,” a song about morality that ranks up with Warren Zevon’s best songs. A Zevon flavor also can be heard in songs like “Hustler’s Land Stand,” “Everyone’s Moving In The Wrong Direction,” and “There’s A Train” but Heyman display a gentler touch with the material.
There’s no denying that this double-disc piece is an ambitious effort, and while sometimes his ambitions get the better of him, Heyman shows that he still is a talented pop tunesmith.