Baya Michaelson – For Masons, Intellectuals, The Few and Leftbehind (Album Review)

The first song on Baya Michaelson’s fourth record is titled “All the Critics Hate Me.” I can’t speak for the other hired geeks and pompous pricks, but I can speak for myself and say that I don’t hate you, Baya. I just think you can do better, and hope you will. 

Troublingly, it’s been over ten years that Michaelson has been holding himself back musically, refusing to evolve, either out of spite, pride, or some stubborn vision that even I, one of the fabled and endangered creatures called Rock Critics, couldn’t possibly understand.

Michaelson is unwilling to compromise this vision, whatever it may be, even if it does hold him back in terms of potential success. His last record, Torn, was a letdown to many listeners who were likely hoping he would try and take his music in a new direction, ditching the auto-tune and boring drums, keeping the admittedly very often capable and even tantalizing production. Torn, turned out to be another unfortunate affirmation of his musical stagnation, warts and all.

A common critique of Michaelson’s music is the vocal work, which is a total ripoff of David Bowie. There’s no way around it, and although not all rip offs are a bad thing, this ripoff is. On a song like “TVC 15” by Bowie himself, his unconventional vocal style is pulled off only through an ultimate lack of restraint, letting himself loose and belting a lyric like “He’s a quadraphonic, he’s a / He’s got more channels, uh” in a state of constant and extreme verbal fluctuation.

Michaelson’s voice does resemble Bowie, but it’s too strained and intentional to really pull off the weirdness And despite a personal note from Michaelson that accompanied the rest of the information on the album, “I hope the critics look past my vocals. It is the one instrument I can’t replace,” I can’t help but bring it up. If it’s really true that Michaelson can’t change his vocals, which I’m not fully convinced is the case, then that is a legitimate bummer, since everything instrumental on the album is at least passable, if not pretty decent.

Something to note right away is the banjo. It’s an instrument that catches a lot of flack from critics and casuals alike, but fits in well on tracks like “Tomorrow’s Your Birthday” and “Adrenochrome.” The latter track is one of the best off the album, featuring samples of audio from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as the banjo continues to play dexterously and synths tickle the ears.

The drums on the album are less than desirable, not fitting many of the banjo-led tracks with their artificial-sounding rhythms, when a rougher, dare-I-say sloppy approach would have better accompanied the banjo, or at least something slower in tempo. However, on a song like “The Theme for the Leftbehinds,” the drumming reminiscent of a marching band fits in well. I wonder if these are drum machines or real drums we hear on the album. In the case of them being drum machines, I would understand the lack of variations in the drum lines. But if it is Michaelson himself on the drums, my suggestion is this: loosen up a little and use the cymbals a little more. 

And like David Bowie, or say, Brian Eno, Michaelson does have a great ear for production, it’s just hard to appreciate when muddled down by the vocal work and lyrical work which never reaches a point of real poignancy, at least not of any that was compelling to me. There are no earworms on this album, no riffs I could recall after my first listen, which is fine. Not everything needs to be catchy. There are some great examples of production wizardry on a track like “Zeroes” which seems to utilize every instrument on the album up until that point in small and big ways, and is nice to listen to but still nothing to write home about.

For Masons, Intellectuals, The Few and Leftbehind is a pretentious name for an album (it’s like naming your album Tortured Poets Department), and the music does not live up to the level of prevention the title would imply. It’s not a grand concept album or even a grand album in general. More than anything, this is a demonstration of great potential, and either an unconscious or conscious unwillingness to tap into it. 

Score/Mediocre: Michaelson is someone to keep an eye on, but only if he can evolve past the least charismatic traits of Bowie (which are still decently charismatic traits).

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