feature photo: Vilma Jovaisa
The first time I listened to Vacate (Cuneiform Records) it was without understanding any of the context but it was easy to sense that this latest, 2024 album from Chicago’s quirky rock band Cheer-Accident was different. Then, I read an essay about it from the band’s linchpin Thymme Jones. He explains that it had been the band’s ambition for some twenty-five years to make a Burt Bacharach-styled ‘easy listening’ record. Jones traced his own fondness for the music back to his parents’ Herb Alpert records, revealing what got the composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist Jones to become a trumpet player himself.
Vacate isn’t terribly long: thirty-five minutes of chill listening of a dozen, concise songs and you’re done. That sounds about right if you were making a record in the 60s or 70s and hoped that a track or two would get some radio airplay. The key distinction is, making music like that back then was intended to take a swing at commercial success; today, it’s making art for art’s sake.
None of this is to say that Vacate sounds just like Alpert, Bacharach, Dionne Warwick or the Carpenters; Jones is still his own man taking his own approach. The piano-based arrangements are notably spare and even lack drums on all but four of the twelve tracks. Cheer-Accident sounds less like a rock band and more like a hungry, aspiring singer-songwriter making a record with grand designs but on budget too tight to bring in the orchestral backing to realize those designs. Jones is very resourceful in getting that orchestral backing sound with minimal instruments, which he likes to insert into most of these songs mostly when you’re not expecting it.
A verse or two is sung backed by almost nothing apart from piano on, “Closer” and then breaks out into an instrumental passage with some brass, flutes and strings, before shrinking back down to piano and a microphone. Jones’ Alpert-like trumpet are heard more than his voice on songs like the mostly instrumental “Overpass” and “Missing,” serving to emphasize the melodies meted out on his piano.
“Prodigal” is drowning in a dreamy sound visuals coming mostly from Jeff Libersher’s jangly guitar. “Beached” starts out as a simple, Brazilian styled folk song with only acoustic guitar accompaniment a la Antonio Carlos Jobim that later gets stacks of brass piled on from Jones and Mike Hagedorn (trombone).
The Todd Rundgren-ish “Price” has some of the oddly effective chord progressions Bacharach was famous for, not an easy feat to pull off. Meanwhile, a facsimile of the Tijuana Brass through Jones’ multi-tracked trumpet is heard on “Western,” but over a rock song.
“Promise” is the only time someone other than Jones takes on the vocals; Bethany DeGaetano Smoker does the honors and does it well. “Range” is richly melodic, made even more so by Jones’ own vocal harmonies. It seems to just gather real momentum when it ends.
The instrumental lounge pop tune “Gilbert” has perhaps more wrinkles in it in the form of tempo changes and mini sections that make it far more interesting than lounge music is generally known to be. “Met” boasts the most sophisticated vocal arrangements, with Jones’ voices harmonizing and layered over each other all the way to fade-out.
The idea of an art rock band making an easy listening record suggests that the band is watering down their art and resorting to kitsch. Thymme Jones and Cheer-Accident defy those expectations by refusing to make cheesy music. Instead, they highlight some of the real artistry that came from music labeled as easy listening and do so in the Cheer-Accident way. It’s an ‘easy listening’ record that deserves close listening.
Get Vacate now, over at Bandcamp.
*** Cheer-Accident CD’s and vinyl at Amazon ***
- Cheer-Accident – ‘Vacate’ (2024) - January 3, 2025
- Patrice Rushen – ‘Prelusion’ (1974, 2024 Remaster) - January 2, 2025
- Camila Nebbia, Dietrich Eichmann, John Hughes + Jeff Arnal – ‘Chrononaux’ (2024) - January 1, 2025
