The Sunday NY Times
Style Magazine had a section on The New Romantic singer/songwriters. Lulu, prepare yourself.
September 19, 2004
The New Romantics
By MICKEY RAPKIN
Men have never been good with the ''L'' word, which is why God invented the mix tape. And John Cusack movies. But music-loving Lotharios can now retire Bon Jovi's ''I'll Be There for You.'' A group of finger-pickin' poets -- the newbadours, shall we? -- are reclaiming the label ''pop'' for anyone who thinks a love song needn't include the words ''heart,'' ''eye'' and ''sky.''
The seven singer-songwriters photographed on these pages recall early Bob Dylan, a time when albums felt like complete thoughts, not just a collection of radio-ready singles. There is an earnest, hold-me-till-I-need-sutures quality to their lyrics that wouldn't be out of place on a greeting card -- if Hallmark introduced a line sold exclusively in Williamsburg.
''I want the audience to take my show seriously,'' says the 22-year-old Norwegian Sondre Lerche, which is why he performs in a bespoke blazer. Not that credibility is an issue when your second album, ''Two Way Monologue,'' is baked with the kind of deeply layered pop orchestrations that draw comparisons with Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello. Ben Jelen, whose ''Give It All Away'' is a piano-heavy love letter to 20-something yearnings, is regularly likened to Norah Jones. (He prefers ''the male Sarah McLachlan.'') The atmospheric rock of Marcus Congleton's Ambulance LTD is a little bit Pavement, a little bit Hall and Oates. And 20-year-old Tyler Hilton's voice is an unholy alliance of the Beach Boys and the blues demigod Robert Johnson.
Colin Smith, of mrnorth, blends a heartfelt brew of Jeff Buckley, U2 and pre-electronica Radiohead, while Diego Garcia, Elefant's Argentine frontman, opts for theatric vibrato over the band's Cure-esque power pop. And for postcoital insights from a thousand sweaty nights -- the kind unconcerned with whether there are fresh linens on the bed -- nobody beats Van Hunt, whose self-titled debut is the perfect soundtrack for any seduction. Armed with three chords and a melody (remember melody?), each artist perfectly mines the essence of every blessed, cursed, adolescent first. This is why you threw down for the larger iPod.
