Nickel Creek - "Why Should The Fire Die?"(Sugar Hill, 2005) - * * *

See the article as it ran in the Daily News:
http://jonathansanders.0catch.com/nickelcreek.JPG



What happens when the most innovative band in bluegrass decides to focus on alternative pop? The short answer is that not much changes at all. The longer answer is that while nothing major changes, therein lies the problem. If curiosity killed the cat, then high expectations killed the average album.

That's not to say Why Should The Fire Die is a bad album by any stretch. It's just that the raised expectations from This Side (which turned bluegrass on its ear and made the band the subject of abject hatred from the "bluegrass community") likely made it impossible for the band to ever produce the album anyone expected from them this go-around. Songs like "When In Rome" tread the waters of above-average bluegrass, but fail to be what an alt-pop audience is going to want to hear. It just doesn't push the envelope enough for pop, and it pushes the envelope too much for bluegrass. How's that for a no-man's land?

Why Should The Fire Die? does have its very strong moments. "Somebody More Like You" and "Anthony" are both very different paeons to being spurned by love, and each track takes a different sonic angle on the whole mess. "Anthony" features Sara Watkins on vocals that remind a listener both of hippie songstress Melanie Safka and bluegrass legend Allison Krauss as she sings the uncompromisingly harsh lyric: "He's not looking back because he doesn't want anything I have or anything I am. He says he can't love me." Ouch, but definitely replayable. "Somebody More Like You" takes on the guise of a traditional bluegrass ballad, but Chris Thile's bitter vocals give it the edge: "I didn't hear you say you're sorry. I wish you all the best at finding somebody more like you." As the song progresses he gets angrier as he asks the woman who's spurned him why she couldn't live with him: "I hope you meet someone your height, so you can see eye to eye with someone as small as you!" Oh the wonderous bitterness!

Also, it's important to note that there is envelope pushing -- this ain't your granddaddy's bluegrass! "Best Of Luck" is one of the band's first tracks to fully involve non-stringed percussion, which provides the song an immediacy that few others in the genre have. The dueling vocals of Thile and Watkins also give the song a surreal touch that takes many listens to fully sink in. And "Helena" shows the band's immense range, starting as a quiet mandolin-and-vocal piece that apologizes for failures at love but ending with a full drumline to back up the band as Thile sings that he'll always be fine whether he has her or not. Excellent, and it makes the hairs stand up on the back of the neck in just that perfect way.

So why the harshness toward the band early in the review? The bottom line is that they've changed the direction their music is aiming. They're no longer promoting themselves to country radio (though they do still show up as "Bluegrass" in the music media). Rather, they want audiences to hear their music as alternative pop, with a bluegrass touch. And while Why Should The Fire Die? might be a mightily impressive album from a bluegrass perspective, the band hasn't quite figured out how far the envelope has to be pushed to be a cutting edge pop band. Which gives the appearance that they're coasting -- which judging from the content of the album isn't a bad proposition. There is plenty to hear in this album that is quite invigoratingly good. One can't help, however, but wonder what Nickel Creek could be doing two or three albums from now. With their talent, they could define a musical generation if they don't get complacent.