Small Engine Repair - An Introduction To Small Engine Repair EP
- Written by Robert Powell
Small Engine Repair is a band that can’t decide whether to laugh or cry. Every song from their debut EP, An Introduction To Small Engine Repair is shot through with an underlying sense of tragedy but decorated with a flurry of wryness. Take opening cut ‘Fall Down At Your Feet’; a track that speaks of a heart-broken pub landlord who find his wife ‘on her knees with the butcher’.
‘I Feel So Old’ lands in similarly ambiguous waters and showcases this bands remarkable talent for sounding aged and knowing yet completely contemporary at exactly the same time. The shimmering lap steel and rhythmic sway is enough to appease any sandal clad folk devotee. Yet the sparseness of the track along with its heartfelt finale could also see it easily slot into the iPod of any nu-folk, Bon Iver worshipping hipster (who would probably also be wearing sandals).
On the face of it ‘Have You See What I’ve Become?’ is as tragic a song that has ever been written. But while it is undeniably soundtrack gold for any romantic tragedy film, it sidesteps the giant Snow Patrol shaped hole of cliché through the subtle, restrained keyboard and string backing.
Subtle, lush sounding keys are the order of the day again in ‘This Whole Set Up Is A Lie’. A song that’s obvious undertones are romantic yet it’s an impression of the banality and consistency of modern life that stays with me after it has ended. ‘I’m there, staring at the wall, just sitting there staring at the wall. And the marks and the panels on the door, just sitting there staring at the wall’ croons lead singer Phil Twigg. It is indeed remarkable what you notice and remember about the plainest of landscapes if you look at it for long enough.
‘Hey, Best Friend’ is aurally the most optimistic song on the album but lyrically it’s clear that this is still a lament to good times past and close friends gone. ‘Hey best friend, you should know it’s okay, I’d come visit you – but I can’t afford the train. But I still miss you, more than I can say’ is as perfectly sculpted a lyric as I’ve ever heard; ambiguous yet obvious, gloomy yet witty.
But any optimistic relief obtained from ‘Hey Best Friend’ is instantly dispelled by the downtrodden, dare I say grim; ‘Dream Boat’. A strangely psychedelic track, it stands in a polar opposite position from its predecessor on the EP in that the dreamy lyrics and shimmering aural soundscape sit together comfortably. In fact, the track is a little too comfortable, gloomy and easy for my liking.
With its glum organ and stoic lyrics, ‘Dream Boat’ becomes what is essentially the album’s funeral march. On paper, it should bring this record to a close perfectly when aligned with the EP’s Intro – a one and a half minute track asking if ‘we’re all just looking for some place to die’. Yet tragically it doesn’t. However this mismatch is not through a lack of quality; in fact it’s the lack of quantity that leaves me with a feeling that this EP is a life part lived.
But still, An Introduction To Small Engine Repair is a charming, intelligent EP that manages to bridge the gap between melancholy and hope in an accessible yet authentic way.