Jason Falkner: "The Lie in Me"

Jason Falkner, previously in the orbit of Jellyfish, the Grays, Air, Beck, Paul McCartney, and Brendan Benson, among others, is in the business of writing hooks—the species that grabs instantly, that cycles over and over in your head, that burrows its way into the brain and makes you wonder how no one ever thought of this simple combination of notes before; the species that seems to define the genus “hook.” Two months ago, Falkner released a new album full of just such unexpected chord progressions and amazing riffs—not that you would know it; the import CD bin might be dead, but the gap in popular consciousness between worldwide and Japan-only releases lives on.

A couple songs from All Quiet on the Noise Floor are available to stream: one is the apparent lead single, “Princessa,” an intricately arranged but straightforwardly composed pop raver; more interesting is “The Lie In Me,” a five-minute midtempo ballad that recalls the solo work of Falkner’s Jellyfish bandmate Roger Joseph Manning Jr. The track begins with a spread-out mixture of echoing guitar chimes, resonant vocals moving seamlessly between high and low registers, and a sauntering bass line that seems to spend more time between notes than on them. The lazy ambience comes to an abrupt end as Falkner’s delivery becomes more insistent, as the bass snaps to rhythmic attention, as the instrumentation inches up on the beat, half-step by half-step, anxiety mortaring…all resolving into a chunky tonic and Falkner crooning, more wistfully than angrily, “So tell me tell me please / Why is it you’re happiest when I am on my knees?” When the chorus appears the second time around, the contrast between Falkner’s major-scale vocals and the dissonant chromaticism underneath, not to mention the amazing minor-major resolution as he sings “lie in me,” is impossible to ignore. In each recurrence, Falkner piles more and more elements into the arrangement and increases both the suspense of the buildup and the exhalation of the resolution. We are allowed some breathing room with a laid-back bridge and parallel-octave guitar solo, but these feel superfluous. “The Lie in Me” is a vehicle for one amazing chord progression, and that’s all it needs.

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