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Michael Houser
Sandbox
(Supercat)
First Appeared in
The Music Box, January 2006, Volume 13, #1
Written by John Metzger
"The stars are spinning over my head/The clouds are showing their heels,"
sings Michael Houser on No Matter What, the lead track from his second
posthumously released solo effort Sandbox. With its bright and breezy
melody, the song owes more of a debt to Mike Mills’ vision of R.E.M. than it
does to Houser’s primary outfit Widespread Panic, though it also serves as a
fitting introduction to what inevitably was his final album. Having begun work
on the outing in late 2001, Houser handed his homespun recordings to longtime
friend and producer John Keane the following August, a mere week before he
succumbed to pancreatic cancer. Adhering to Houser’s clearly defined vision for
the project, Keane, in turn, brought Sandbox to fruition by immersing
Houser’s initial forays within an array of tastefully polished production
flourishes. Augmented by Keane’s own contributions as well as those of drummer
Andrew Hanmer and Widespread Panic’s John Bell, Domingo Ortiz, and Todd Nance,
the collection effectively provides a salve for healing the shattered hearts of
Widespread Panic’s fans that resulted when Houser slipped quietly into the
night.
In completing Sandbox, Keane transformed Houser’s original song
sketches into radiant works of beauty by coloring the dark, sinewy guitar
sequences that wind through Goodbye My Love with splashes of shimmering
light and bolstering the meditative musings of Solitude with the
percolating pulse of spirituality. Elsewhere, he bent the bucolic, back porch
twilight of Can’t Change the Past into a bittersweet slice of
country-tinged pop, and he surrounded Where Does It Go’s plaintive plea
for love and friendship with wisps of ominously swirling organ. Throughout the
set, Houser’s lyrics waver between sad uncertainty and calm acceptance as he
marches towards his fate, and although his vocal style threatens to become
monotonously tedious, the raw emotion of his thoughts, combined with the
effortless nature of his melodies, more than succeeds in keeping Sandbox
aloft. 
Sandbox is available from Amazon.com.
To order, Click Here!
For Canadian orders, please
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For UK orders, please
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2006
The Music Box
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