Ten Singles

Album Review

Two aspects of former Gumption member Kurt Hagardorn's debut album give hints about its contents. One is the title, Ten Singles, which is simultaneously a throwback to an earlier era (while individual song downloads might be the format of the present and future, the "single," as in a 7" 45-rpm disc, is the format of the past) and a boast; this is not just an album, then, it's a sort of greatest-hits set to be. The other is the notation inside that the contents were "recorded between 2000 and 2006," seemingly a long time to spend on ten songs and 37 minutes of music. It turns out that both of those hints are indicative. Ten Singles is a rarity among indie releases (it's on Bladen County Records, located in Portland, OR, where Hagardorn lives): a fully realized work. Hagardorn may have spent six-plus years working on it part-time, but it sounds like he may have written and recorded a lot more material, then chosen the best. His primary criterion may have been listenability; as its title suggests, this album consists of ten catchy tunes. Catchy, that is, from a particular perspective: Hagardorn is steeped in the music of the mid-'60s to the mid-'70s. He is a fan of the L.A. country-rock sound of the late-'60s, as performed by such acts as the Byrds, Poco, and the Flying Burrito Brothers ("You Are My Girl," "Yesterday and Tomorrow"); he knows his way around garage rock ("Rock Scissors Paper," "Last Time Rewind"); and he is familiar with the ballads of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys ("Please Make It Last," "It's OK, It's Allright"), among other styles of the era. His versions of these styles are accomplished, but of course the tracks would be singles (as in chart hits) only in an alternate universe in which the summer of 1966 had never ended. One might argue that, in a sense, it never has, since, decade after decade, artists like Hagardorn come along to revisit it, exciting critics and at least a few fans. Well, here we go again, and why not?