Art Is on Vacation

Album Review

It's Only Roy (formerly known as Grown Men) is a pop/rock duo consisting of Rick Bell and Michael Lanning. Both are veterans of the professional songwriting wars, having collectively and individually written songs for Dave Edmonds, the Stray Cats, and French pop singer Sylvia Vartan, as well as providing songs for a host of film and television projects. But recording and producing their own songs is clearly the duo's appointed destiny. This album is filled with musical references ranging from the Beatles to the Beach Boys, among others. However, the duo's music is far more than just revisionist. A strong sense of virtue, strength of spirit, and a life-affirming bent surround all of the songs here, and it's damned inspiring. With all of that said, and although comparisons may indeed be a shortcut to thinking, there are some obvious musical influences that must be referenced here, most importantly Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys. Throughout many of the songs, especially "I Still Believe in Love" and the pointlessly fun "Downtown California," It's Only Roy stirs up virtually dozens of Wilson musical motifs, some obvious, but many delightfully obscure. Then there's the out-and-out Carl Wilson memorial, "Gentle Soul," which takes quotes from "Feel Flows," Dennis Wilson's awesomely underrated Pacific Ocean Blue, and even some gorgeous Smile-inspired soundscapes and riffs. The song pays tribute to Wilson beautifully without resorting to cloying, overly sentimental statements. "It's Alright" is a solid, life-enhancing, Beatles-inspired rocker that is one of the most uplifting four minutes of pop to be released in recent memory. These are just a few of the album's pleasures, as the whole body of the record works as an album statement, and ends up being one of the betterpop records to be released in 2001.