Album Review: Paul Baribeau- Grand Ledge and Paul Baribeau

Artist: Paul Baribeau
Album: Grand Ledge and Paul Baribeau
Released: 2007 and 2004
Label: Plan-It-X Records
Hometown: Lansing, Michigan
Rating: 8.6 and 7.2




I have recently come across an artist named Paul Baribeau from Michigan (home sweet home) who is one of those guys that shakes the very foundations of any pretentious analytical truths a guy like me likes to lean on when lazy. There is always a stigma surrounding singer-songwriters as almost unbearably boring even if the songs are great. I'd love to say that I have an endless amount of patience for going to see live music of singer-songwriters, but I don't. That's why I stopped doing it myself. I couldn't justifiably ask people to sit through something I wouldn't. There are only a few modern singer-songwriters who make you feel like you're watching a whole band. A few of these would be Jeff Tweedy, Cory Branan, Daniel Johnston, Eef Barzelay, and John Darnielle. They are so complete and full that if you added another instrument you feel like the room might just explode because it couldn't hold everything (a few of those great songwriters are so good that they also front absolutely incredible bands). Paul Baribeau belongs on that list.

I've heard it said before that "Paul Baribeau wants to make you cry", but I don't think that this is the case. Paul Baribeau is pure childish-ness in the greatest sense of the word. If you ever take the time to observe little ones, then you will quickly see that little kids experiences the purest and rawest form of each emotion whether it be love, anger, joy, peace, or disappointment. As adults we learn to hamper and dampen these emotions and we widdle away at each one with our logic, understanding, and the soldering effect of self-preservation. Every once in awhile you come across someone who seems to have missed this step. They seem un-adulterated by the jaded-ness that engulfs so many and they seem so fragile and exposed in their naivete. The first reaction to finding someone like this is to protect them from being damaged because they seem so vulnerable to the world's sandpaper edges.

Paul Baribeau sees love in colors and shapes only reserved for these types of people. This is not to say that he hasn't learned anything, because many of these songs are about learning from your mistakes and not repeating them like when he teaches on ("Ten Things") to "Think of all the things that hold you back/And realize that you don't need them/Think of all the mistakes you have made in your life/And make sure that you never repeat them." Paul encourages us to see the full spectrum of all that life has to offer. With the passing of each song, you can feel your palette expanding.

His first record on Plan-it-X Records which was self-titled is said to have been recorded in one night when the head of the label wrote him a letter asking for a bio and some demos. He rattled out 14-songs in his jangly-in-overdrive style and Chris (the label guy) liked it so much that he just decided to use the demo as the first record. The self-titled contains every bit of the purity that is fleshed out and improved upon on Grand Ledge and has a couple of tracks that will floor you emotionally and physically. This happens every time I listen to Paul recount all of the friends and family members who have come up short on "Never Get to Know" and the microcosmic biography of "Boys Like Me" which rings true in the macro perspective. Even the turnaround of "I Thought I Could Find You" is completely unexpected and wonderful. It is on this first record that I can't help but remember the first time I listened to Daniel Johnston's Fun on cassette and how I couldn't hardly understand how such unabashed and child-like wonder could be so present in songs.

Stylistically, Baribeau is also the purest of singer-songwriters in the sense that both of his records are just him and a guitar. No tricks, no tampering, and every one features his spastic guitar strumming as he careens through tales of former bands, former girlfriends, new towns, old faces, etc. I played it for my roommate and I couldn't tell his reaction until he heard "Hard Work" off of Grand Ledge and just screamed "That's me!" as Paul details his morning by the half-hour as he starts his day. There is something in Paul's music that makes it so you can't help but feel like he's giving a voice to the feelings you lost in a pile of sawdust.

On Grand Ledge, Paul nearly perfects his aesthetic and has 9 songs that are over much too short. I find myself singing the chorus to "Christmas Lights" constantly and when he sings about hearing an old song on "Falling In Love With Your Best Friend" I am overwhelmed by the a contented melancholy that feels like the emotional equivalent to realizing the whole world is connected. Paul Baribeau exists somewhere in the midst of that connection.