Backward Masks

They Say...

Review by William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

As of their fourth full-length, Backward Masks, Summer Hymns are a trio of multi-instrumentalists, with founder/members Zachary Gresham and Philip Brown now joined by Chris Riser. But the band remains a showcase for Gresham's contemplative musings, delivered in a fey high tenor that occasionally breaks into falsetto, yet never becomes emotional. Gresham's dreamy vocal persona, supported by the slow tempos and shambling rhythms, is particularly notable since his lyrics, which are easily discernible for the most part, are overwhelmingly concerned with romantic love. "I like the way you walk/I like the way you walk into your room," he begins on the first track, "Way You Walk," and by the fifth song, "Fearanoia," he is declaring, "There's no reason for you to be afraid of love." No reason to be afraid, it seems, but the singer's object of affection might have reason to be frustrated with her paramour, if his other observations about himself are to be trusted. "I was passed out on your floor," he sings in "Pity and Envy," "while you banged upon my door." Indeed, Gresham never sounds ardent in these songs of love; most of the time he sounds like he's having trouble staying awake, and thus it's no surprise that the performances sometimes break down suddenly, after starting with a lazily strummed acoustic guitar. Still, Gresham's hapless character remains ingratiating, and that's the charm of the songs, which keeps them from being as self-consciously arty as they otherwise might be. Echoes of the Beatles and the Byrds of 1966-1967 abound, but as a singer Gresham is borrowing most prominently from Ray Davies of the Kinks; his very enfeeblement is part of his attraction, and he knows it.