Listen Up: Wednesday, June 27, 2007

PHOTOS: 1 A D V E R T I S E M E N T A D V E R T I S E M E N T Glen Reynolds In Between Days (Idol Records) By Jimmy Fowler If you go to MySpace.com/Chomsky, you’ll find info on MIT’s resident geopolitical provocateur Noam Chomsky instead of Chomsky, the Denton garage-rock outfit that, between 1998 and 2002, sat atop the heap of North Texas indie bands. All of that success was prominently due to guitarist-songwriter-singer Glen Reynolds, who added a Wilco-ish concern for harmony, melody, and layered, sweet-rock sensibilities that chafed (or tempered, depending) the band’s penchant for raw noisemaking. There’s plenty of sonic mischief, shaken with a liberal dose of honey-flavored Byrds-Monkees hooks, on Reynolds’ solo debut, In Between Days. Reynolds admits an interest in masculine vulnerability. His bandmates include bassist Chris Holte, drummer Pete Young, and a co-guitarist Marc Daigle — all three of them know how to sing, and with Reynolds they mix their male vocalismo into a deep bank of poignant yearning. The album could be summed up as a collection of Oasis-style forays into drum-heavy guy-pop that caramelize into Coldplay-ish stargazing. “I Feel Love” is not a remake of the Donna Summer-Giorgio Moroder disco anthem but a sunflower-faced embrace of the connection between the natural world and natural love. “I’ve Seen the Blueprints” is a heavy, tempo-shifting rocker that twists Reynolds’ lead vocals into a syrupy daisy-chain backed by chugging electric rhythm guitar. The solemn, stately “Hitchhike to Nowhere” finds Reynolds and Co. comfortably numb in a cotton blanket of ooh-ooh’s, everything wrapped around a lament: “The day that I left home / I swore I’d be alone / The nations I have roamed / Will have to search a long, long time / Before I’m home.” With a song titled “You’re Not Alone,” In Between Days is one of those rare c.d.’s that sounds like a friend holding your hand through the highs and heartbreaks of dangerous romance. The intimacy that Glen Reynolds indulges in here is equally dangerous but also cathartic and radiant. Email this Article...