 Eytan
Mirsky | Everyone's Having Fun Tonight!
a bobo-k review
Buy
it! Somehow
I put a CD in my stereo and ended up teleporting from my apartment in NYC to any
pub on the Jersey shore circa 1985. I thought I was having an Eddie and the Cruisers
flashback and then I realized, it was just Eytan Mirsky's CD Everyone's Having
Fun Tonight! Part
Elvis Costello, part Marshall Crenshaw, without the flair of either, Eytan's CD
is ear candy. It's pretty, it's happy, it's simplistic. But without the bitter
irony of Costello's lyrics or musical structure of Crenshaw, Mirksy's CD is nice
to listen to, but leaves little to digest. From the cut "If You Wanna Save
the World" come the lyrics "If you want to waste your time/Well that's
just fine by me/But I feel like saving humanity"-hey let's change the world
with a peppy beat! The
CD features a few of cuts that Mirsky wrote for film, including "Happiness"
(sung in the film of the same name by REM's Michael Stipe, by Mirsky on this CD),
the title cut of American Splendor, and two songs written for movies that they
ended up not appearing in ("If You Wanna Save the World" for From Other
Worlds and "Hairy Situation" for Human Nature). Standout
cut on the CD, is "American Splendor" which simply features Eytan's
vocals and guitar. It features a great stripped down sound, with poignant lyrics
"They told me I should grin and bear it/Whenever life gets rough/they told
me I should sit in silence/But now I guess I've had enough." The song is
an anomaly right in the middle of the CD … then back to the dated 80s pub
rock sound. With
the exception of "American Splendor", the entire album appears to be
in the same key, with the same beat -- perfect for bopping to the beat with a
brewski in your hand at any anonymous pub on the shore. Buy
it! Track
Listing:
1. She's Looking Better
2. Why Does It Have to Be That Way?
3.
Everyone's Having Fun Tonight
4. Happiness
5. This Song
6. If You
Wanna Save the World
7. Bad Bad Luck
8. Don't Gimme That Look
9. American
Splendor
10. A Hundred Times a Day
11. Let's Just Start With Goodbye
12.
What's Wrong With You?
13. Make You Feel Good
14. Hairy Situation
15.
The Only Present I Want This Year
16. Reciproco
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