On Nat Baldwin’s “One Two Three,” Baldwin’s bass offers a slow, soft, solo waltz, while his falsettos float about, wistfully pondering:
In fear of being attacked
I will not let myself be the subject
Full of love, hope and offered trust
Only to retreat with each betrayal
One, two, three
Which do you see?
Hinting at the complex interaction between art, the creator and the consumer, this verse describes the dilemma of listening to Baldwin’s music as a recorded experiment. An experiment is a one-time action, controlling certain factors while altering others for varying results. But recorded music sees the same result with each hearing, and with each hearing opens itself to scrutiny not possible with the fleeting memory of live performance.
Without going too far into an analysis of art and mass production, ala philosopher Walter Benjamin, the question remains: how is the aura of Baldwin’s music lost in its mass production? While his latest album Most Valuable Player lacks the frenetic energy and unpredictability of live experience, what remains is a playful and lovely experiment in free jazz and non-traditional classical music.
With varying styles and tempos, each of Most Valuable Player’s ten tracks acts as its own succinct experiment. For an artist whose live performances have included “sul pont [for] THREE WHOLE FUCKING MINUTES” to quote a recent melophobe Baldwin review, it’s worth mentioning that the majority of the songs finish under four minutes. In fact, only the final track “Look She Said” enters into deconstructive noise territory, and it sustains just over four.
Most pieces have a simple layered mix of Baldwin’s upright bass, a cello, a twelve-string guitar, drums and the occasional horn and wind instrument. The low-key yet lush instrumentation is a suitable backdrop for Baldwin’s playful, soulful, sometimes slightly off-key falsettos.
While his vocals unpredictably explore the scale, Baldwin’s lyrics are often difficult to decipher, arguably making them irrelevant. In fact, the “One Two Three” lyrics quoted above are the least enigmatic of the album. Still, the passion and sincerity with which the lyrics are sung are more significant than the words. For many of the tracks, the titles serve as phrases repeated throughout the song, often in a nonsensical context. In this way, the lyric declines to provide a narrative but rather the sound of a narrative. It’s not important what Baldwin is contemplating. It’s simply important that he’s contemplating something. Replace the words “the felled trees” with “the sour wine,” and the song’s aura remains unchanged.
Listening through Most Valuable Player, other noteworthy tracks include the opening “Lake Erie.” Its quick tempo and rich multi-layered production are qualities not seen on subsequent songs. Baldwin’s crooning is eerily (pardon the pun) reminiscent of Jeff Buckley, and hints at the mesmerizing vocals to come throughout the album.
When Baldwin’s vocals often feel melancholy, “Black Square” is noteworthy for how its joyful, upbeat composition makes Baldwin appear carefree and winsome.
“Enter the Light Out” also stands out as a showcase of musicianship. Baldwin begins with his vocals changing volume without pattern, then adds a bass line to punctuate each word; a guitar fades in. One after the other, each instrument layers towards a culmination of the repeated title phrase “enter the light out.” Here the horns echo the melody, with the horns and vocals eventually blending together until the song abruptly ends before the listener can contemplate its existential quality.
Though Baldwin’s free bass and unique vocal style are intriguing on their own, Most Valuable Player greatly benefits from the talents of Baldwin’s collaborators, particularly from Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear, who engineered and produced the album. Taylor recorded the album immediately after recording Dirty Projectors’ Rise Above in singer Dave Longstreth’s living room. Taylor and Longstreth both offer their talents on Most Valuable Player.
It’s tempting to compare Nat Baldwin with the Dirty Projectors (especially considering that Baldwin, a long-time member of Dirty Projectors, plays bass on Rise Above); so, please indulge me here. Dirty Projectors’ sound is often categorized as difficult; with multiple instruments and voices simultaneously playing at different tempos, the result is a beautifully planned chaos that inexplicably makes sense. Baldwin’s melodies and song structures, on the other hand, are more simple and predictable. Where Longstreth often belts out his vocals sporadically, Baldwin is more reserved, letting his float without punctuation.
Both Longstreth’s and Baldwin’s vocal styles have been described as melismatic, in the way they rarely hold a pure note, but allow the vocals to jump around the scale, seemingly with no attention to the lyric. This term is further appropriate as it alludes to a tradition of ritualistic art. Referring back to the Benjamin analysis of art and mass production, Baldwin’s melismatic singing feels like a unique, in-the-moment artistic statement, not to be repeated in the same way twice, and certainly not to be scrutinized after multiple hearings.
And thus, we should end our scrutiny here.
Most Valuable Player, released April 29th, 2008, is currently available from