Meaningless

あの名盤が20年の時を越え蘇る!エリオット・スミス～エイミー・マン好きは必聴!
エイミー・マン、フィオナ・アップルからカニエ・ウェスト、マック・ミラー、そして「マグノリア」をはじめ数々の映画音楽の仕事で知られるプロデューサー、ソングライターである才人ジョン・ブライオンの唯一のソロ作。'01年にリリースされ、すぐに市場から無くなり、ストリーミングでもまともに聴けなかった名作が遂に再発。エイミー・マンとの共作「I Believe She's Lying」、盟友エリオット・スミスもカヴァーした「Trouble」などなどパワー・ポップ好きな顔を覗かせながらも、ビートリッシュで繊細な美メロディが五臓六腑に染み渡る1枚。最高。チープ・トリックのカヴァー「Voices」も収録。 (C)商品本部:狩野 卓永

伝説のソロ唯一作が待望のCD再発!

エイミー・マン、フィオナ・アップル、ルーファス・ウェインライトといったシンガー・ソングライターの名盤を数多く手がけ、更にはカニエ・ウェストやマック・ミラー、フランク・オーシャンなど、ヒップホップ勢との仕事も高く評価されている、現代アメリカのポップシーンにおけるキー・パーソン、ジョン・ブライオン。

数多くのプロデュース作品や、『マグノリア』や『エターナル・サンシャイン』といった映画音楽仕事はあまりにも有名ですが、そんな彼が残した(現在までの)唯一のソロ作品が本作『MEANINGLESS』です。本作は2001年にCDで自主リリースされ、メジャーからもリリースされる予定だったものの、契約を勝ち取ることが出来ずリリースは立ち消えに。しかしその後の彼のプロデューサー/映画音楽作家としての大活躍によって、本作のプレミア価格は高騰し続けました。

瑞々しい歌と、酩酊を誘うサイケデリック感、処女作らしい生々しさは、盟友であるエリオット・スミスにも通じます。アルバムの最後に配置されたチープ・トリックのカヴァーにも思わずニヤリとしてしまいます。00年代に残されたシンガー・ソングライター作品として、間違いなくトップランクに位置すべきこの極上のアルバムが、この度遂に公式CD再発!!

After many years as a sideman for other people's projects -- including Aimee Mann, the eels, Fiona Apple, Elliott Smith, Jellyfish, and the Wallflowers, among dozens more -- multi-instrumentalist, producer, and general "it man" Jon Brion stepped behind the microphone for his debut solo album in late 2000. Much-anticipated by diehard fans of guitar-based pop music, and especially the rabid cult following of the fractured early-'90s pop outfit Jellyfish, Meaningless delivers. It's impossible to deny that Brion's collaborations have had an effect on him; the influence of Mann is especially strong here (in fact, she co-wrote the jazzy "I Believe She's Lying"), although Brion surpasses the "singer/songwriter" tag by pulling in many of his power pop roots (a cover of Cheap Trick's "Voices" closes the album) and his diverse background in pop music. It could be said that Meaningless cops the style of many of those whom Brion has collaborated with, but in reality it is a representation of the purest form of what Brion has given to the production of those other artists' work. Brion is a wary frontman. Only on the now-legendary (and extremely out-of-print) 1994 Grays album Ro Sham Bo did he take lead vocal and writing credits. That project imploded largely because the premise -- four solo artists who share a band together -- was almost too ambitious. And while Jason Falkner, the most obvious "frontman" of the group, went on to release some enjoyable solo albums, Brion continued on with work mostly as a multi-instrumentalist or a producer. He became somewhat of a legend among the power pop underground, on par with former Jellyfish frontman Andy Sturmer, constantly backing other deserving artists but never releasing any albums himself. When Meaningless appeared at the tail end of 2000, Brion was fresh off substantial buzz created by Grammy nominations for his work on the score for the movie Magnolia; the reaction from the pop community was immediate, and, in fact, probably more than Brion himself even expected. Given that it is self-released on Brion's Straight to Cut-Out records, he seemed to feel the record would fail. That's not to say that Brion will be an immediate breakout success of the pop world, because that, too, is unlikely. But Meaningless is a lovely, catchy, and personal pop album on par with (and in many cases, superior to) the albums and artists that he has worked with in the past. The catchy, almost circus-like "Walking Through Walls" (co-written with Grant Lee Phillips of Grant Lee Buffalo) screams for radio airplay, while the quiet, piano-based ballad "Ruin My Day" wouldn't sound out of place on Let It Be. The album's opener, the personal "Gotta Start Somewhere," beckons that "I might not have anything to offer you/I might not have anything to say that's new/But you've gotta start somewhere." But that's where Brion's wrong. He certainly does have something to offer. ~ Jason Damas