Click to watch

"Time Machine" from Whysall Lane

Throughout the 1990s Richard Baluyut created music that was at once unsettling and arrestingly beautiful with his band Versus. His lyrics were often as poetic as they were direct, and while his appreciation of the cathartic possibilities in incorporating noise, both artistically and aggressively, surfaced in Versus’ music, he never allowed it to overpower his acute sense of melodic priorities and pop song structure, derived as much from the Kinks as from the Pixies. Baluyut’s command of dramatic shifts in volume and tempo gave his work in Versus a unique tension and nuance that many fans found unforgettable. The same tendencies and talents are obvious in his writing for Whysall Lane, a moniker under which he has been recording and performing for several years now.

Members have come and gone, but it seems Baluyut has finally settled on a Whysall Lane line-up with some longevity. He’s recruited former Jawbreaker drummer Adam Pfahler and bassist/vocalist Mikel Delgado, whose voice is remarkably similar to Baluyut’s female vocal foil in Versus, Fontaine Toups. This isn’t a Versus album, but it sure sounds like one. To many people, that’s enough of a recommendation.

Baluyut’s specialty has always been the buildup, starting songs simply, sparsely and softly, before pushing them to epic climaxes of layered guitars and vocals, to name just a few elements he’s employed to breathtaking ends. In Versus, escalations in volume and intensity often ended crushingly, even cacophonously. With Whysall Lane, Baluyut is less heavy-handed when shifting gears within a song. The rise and fall of tracks like “The Way Back,” “Pillows” and “Wither Without You” is more subtle but no less engaging or effective.

“Time Machine” comes out of the chute at a gallop, fueled throughout by a charging guitar riff and Pfahler’s crash and bang drumming. “Theme” wastes no time either, jumping directly into its propulsive rhythm and dancey beat, but most of the tracks develop at a more deliberate pace, slowly unfolding from quiet guitar, bass and drum arrangements with piano and string accents to lines of surging organ, edgier guitars and layers of cascading, intertwining male/female vocals. It’s these meticulously woven vocal lines that elevate Whysall Lane to a level well beyond most rock records in recent memory.

The contrasting of Baluyut’s bleak and sometimes graphic lyrics with his sublime melodies and the album’s lush layering endow many of the songs with remarkable poignancy. The most striking example of this is found on “High Heels,” when he sings, “Blood on the concrete of a parking garage/Stuffed in the trunk of a stolen car/Yes, I remember, naked in high heel shoes/This is your body, it isn’t you,” before falling into the simple, pretty refrain “it isn’t you,” graced with a stirring string arrangement by Baluyut’s brother, and the album’s producer, James.

“During the Mutiny” explores the much more common tragedy of ennui and infidelity. Baluyut sings, “I’m a salesman, you’re a call girl, steaming up the windows/Peeping Tom, cheating mom, sneaking around the suburbs” over delicately rendered instrumentation dominated by acoustic guitar and piano. It’s this rare ability to find beauty in the midst of heartbreak and devastation that makes Richard Baluyut an exceptional songwriter and Whysall Lane an outstanding album.