What's Mine Is Yours

Album Review

Planted firmly in a field of earnest singer/songwriters, Eliot Morris tilts towards Jackson Browne-like sincerity on his debut release. Having legendary Browne cohorts Leland Sklar (bass), Craig Doerge (keyboards), and David Lindley (lap steel) along as backup musicians also brings substantial credibility to the proceedings, and What's Mine Is Yours is certainly a professionally executed album. With production by Tony Berg and mixing by Bob Clearmountain, in addition to musical input from all three members of Nickel Creek, this is clearly an important and expensive project for Universal. For the most part, Morris is up for the challenge. Along with the Browne connection, Morris takes cues from tour mates Counting Crows, especially since his voice is a ringer for Adam Duritz's and the songs unwind with Crows-like mid-tempo drama. Lyrically he's stuck in a reflective, overtly serious mood, both romantically ("Will She Ever Fall in Love Again?," "Love Rescue Me") and world-wise ("This Colorful World," "Balancing the World") but like Duritz, he lays it on thick and these songs could use some judicious editing. They sound fine, but there is a nagging sterility in the approach that seems to emerge from a constricting A&R overkill. There is virtually no interplay between Morris and the band, and it seems like he is singing to backing tracks created when he wasn't around. The songs try hard — sometimes too hard — to make statements, intermittently connecting but more often sounding a bit overblown if not quite pretentious. For all the talented firepower involved, Morris' wordy tunes don't allow the musicians to let loose. Call it the major-label syndrome of eliminating the unpredictability that makes music edgy, instead creating preconceived, immaculately crafted songs that don't naturally resonate. That's not a deal breaker, since Morris obviously has talent, but it leaves this album with a dry, stiff sound that doesn't connect often enough emotionally and all but wastes incredible musicianship that screams for more room to breathe.