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Mediocrity Is an Adequate Lover

Brion Riborn

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Customer Reviews

An Intriguing Success

Artist: Brion Riborn
Album: Mediocrity Is an Adequate Lover
Review by Alex Henderson

Never let it be said that the front cover of Brion Riborn’s self-produced Mediocrity Is
an Adequate Lover is not creative. It depicts a young woman with long brown hair
wearing a miniskirt, stiletto heels and a black blouse sitting on top of an old RCA analog
television set (definitely not a modern digital TV of the flatscreen/widescreen variety).
She is outdoors rather than inside; one cannot see her face at all (she is only shown
from the neck down), and the only thing one sees on the TV screen is the album’s title.
Riborn’s album cover isn’t strictly an exercise in titillation; more than anything, the cover
is intriguing, artsy and eccentric. And having an intriguing album cover is appropriate in
light of the fact that Riborn’s music offers exactly that: intrigue.

This Michigan-based singer/songwriter is best described as adult alternative/roots rock,
although not all of the artists who influence him on Mediocrity Is an Adequate Lover
are people one would ordinarily think of as adult alternative or roots rock. On this 2011
release, Riborn draws on an interesting variety of direct or indirect influences that ranges
from U2 to Pearl Jam to Neil Young to Counting Crows. Vocally, Riborn has a Bono-
ish quality, but his songs are much darker than the songs of U2 (who are ultimately
idealistic rather than cynical). And Riborn has a lot of the angst that has characterized
Pearl Jam and other grunge and post-grunge bands. But Mediocrity Is an Adequate Lover
is neither grunge nor post-grunge; Riborn gets some melodic and harmonic inspiration
from Pearl Jam, but he doesn’t rock nearly as aggressively and doesn’t venture into hard
rock territory. Riborn is folksy and rootsy rather than hard-rocking or metallic; he is also
quite moody. Without question, Mediocrity Is an Adequate Lover is a very dark album.

This 13-song effort gets off to a darkly introspective start with the opener “Foursquare.”
Riborn, who wrote all of the material himself, takes a close look at his darker emotions
on “Foursquare,” and he maintains that mood of angst-ridden introspection on equally
dark tracks such as “Walls and War Games,” “Times That We Forget,” “This Endless
Sky” and the bluesy “Emergency Exit Routes.”

“Such a Liar,” “Hold,” “Weeds” and “On the Eve of the Death of a Beautiful Girl”
are perfect examples of Riborn’s ability to bring the influence of grunge into the adult
alternative/roots rock realm. Try to envision Nirvana, Pearl Jam, the Stone Temple
Pilots or Bush as roots rock or Americana, and one can get a good idea of where Riborn
is coming from on “Such a Liar,” “Hold,” “Weeds” and “On the Eve of the Death of a
Beautiful Girl.”

In his own brooding way, Riborn knows how to be hooky. “More of Less,” for example,
has a hook that pulls the listener right in. And if Riborn is looking for a single to promote
to adult alternative/triple-a radio, “More of Less” would not be a bad choice at all. Same
with the reflective “I Was a Lover”. The song has a hook that jumps right out.

Some listeners might find Mediocrity Is an Adequate Lover to be excessively dark
and wonder if Riborn couldn’t have lightened up the mood once in a while. But the
Midwesterner is under no obligation to lighten up the mood if he doesn’t feel like it;
there is no law stating that every album that comes along has to press the smile button
and offer the listener happy escapism. Riborn obviously isn’t going for escapism on this
release; dark introspection is his specialty, and he is good at what he does.

When one reads Riborn’s comments about his music, it is clear that he isn’t afraid of
self-deprecating humor. But Mediocrity Is an Adequate Lover, although not perfect, is
generally promising. The album is slightly uneven; some of the songs work better than
others, but more often than not, Mediocrity Is an Adequate Lover is a creative success for
this Michigan resident.

Absolutely Outstanding!

This is an absolute brilliant production by Brion. I can really tell he poured his heart into this. I really like songs that take you places, sometimes where you've never been before. Every song does that. My personal favorite songs are Hold and Times That We Forget, but you can't skip any songs on here. They are all great!

This is a very different album from his days in Code Bloom, however, you can still hear the signature CB sound within in songs such as Walls and Wargames, Such a Liar and Futility. From a musician's standpoint, his Dirty/Clean Telecaster sound is one of my favorites. I don't think anyone else really has that sound, it's very unique to Brion.

Brion Riborn is going to be a star!

If you were to ask...

What does this album sound like? If John Mayer, Nirvana, Radiohead, and Counting Crows were all from
Michigan and made an album, it might sound like Mediocrity Is An Adequate Lover. LOVE the album art! My favourite songs are Walls and Wargames and Futility. I really like the electronic accents on those songs. Futility was also recorded on Code Bloom's "Progeria" album.

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Mediocrity Is an Adequate Lover, Brion Riborn
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