From The Seattle Weekly
BILL JANOVITZ
Up Here
(spinART)
Buffalo Tom frontman flies solo, but not far from his band's familiar alt-rock format.
My So-Called Life buffs certainly remember the episode where Angela Chase finally makes out with her crush, the brooding and blank-eyed Jordan Catalano, only to have him coldly tell her afterward at the Buffalo Tom concert that she's "kinda crowding" him when she says hello. It would've been easy to dismiss such cruelty simply as callous immaturity if it weren't for the impassioned vocals of Buffalo Tom's Bill Janovitz in the background: "I'd do it if I could, I hope you know I would." Whether or not those lyrics were intended to represent Jordan's frustrating inability to articulate his true feelings, the song nonetheless offered the scene a deeper emotional resonance and insight into the complexity of romance that's, thankfully, captured on Janovitz's second solo album. Recorded at Fort Apache Studios, the countrified and folk-flaired Up Here is an understated acoustic affair that often recalls Tom Waits as the Bostonian sings about the joys and regrets of relationships past and present ("Atlantic," "Half a Heart"). Despite its stripped-down sound, however, the album still (understandably) has a distinctly Buffalo Tom vibe and--at least for those of us who found bittersweet solace in that band's "I'm Allowed" and "Late at Night"--provides poignant insight into our so-called love lives.
Jimmy Draper