Album Review: Phillip Flathead – Four Track Mind

I saw Phillip Flathead when he opened for Justin Farren at the Fox and Goose months ago and plunked down the five bucks for his CD because it was cheap, but I wasn’t impressed with his performance. Playing solo, he fit in with any number of folk tinged Bob Dylan emulators that you can find in your friendly neighborhood coffee shop. He didn’t hold a candle next to Justin Farren’s wry humor and humble charisma. But Justin Farren has enough of a following in Sacramento that the venue will fall mostly quiet when he starts playing. Phillip Flathead had to contend with the beer soaked echoes of a crowd giving little attention to a guy they didn’t pay to see. It’s hell being an opening act.

It turns out that Phillip is excellent with a band behind him, making his self released album Four Track Mind well worth the cost of a burrito that I sacrificed and more. Playing with a band expands his songs from standard guy with a guitar fare to pleasant guitar and banjo-centered folk spiced with funk bass when he feels like throwing it in (“Slide on By.”) Other songs, like “Hollow Days” would lose its impact without the background strings.

Better yet, the newfound melody keeps his vocals from crying “Uncle!” because they’re being abused too much. Phillip Flathead may have a voice with character but no one could call it subtle. Think Conor Oberst with the tang of Bob Dylan, especially when he decides to let loose. Any flaws in the album come from speaking up too much and not letting the instruments do the work, like in “Downstream” where Phillip engineers his voice into a clumsy echo when he should have let the banjo and bass take care of the mood.

But what’s a little goof here and there among friends? If Phillip Flathead is worth his salt, and I strongly advocate he is, he’ll learn that his strength lies in leaving the fancy effects out. As his album title suggests, he was born for lo-fi.