Paula Kelley
The Trouble with Success or How You Fit into the World
© 2003 Kimchee Records (723724599024)
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Sophisticated orchestral baroque pop as catchy as it comes.
tracks
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notes
Pure pop auteur Paula Kelley began her career riding a wave of college-press hype and European touring during her stint as a supporting player in early '90s American shoegazers the Drop Nineteens. She left them before their demise in 1994 to pursue a vehicle for her own songwriting. The brief one-shot indie rock result was Hot Rod, also featuring John Dragonetti (of Jack Drag fame) on guitar. Boy Wonder came next, formed in 1996 and well-known in Boston for their glorious bubblegummy pop. By the end of the decade Paula was ready to indulge her pop muse fully in the less confining role of solo songwriter. Nothing/Everything arrived in 2001 and successfully demonstrated her drift into the more pristine waters of pop music while leaving the volume and vigor of alternative rock behind.
With The Trouble with Success or How You Fit into the World, Paula Kelley has created something unmatched in beauty and pop smarts. This is the baroque masterpiece that suggests everything she's done before was but the apprenticeship. Enhanced by a veritable army of 38 musicians, The Trouble With Success boasts a brilliant array of instrumental hues lavished upon songs as irresistible as anything a pop hook connoisseur might pine for in these post-rock times. Throughout Paula proves herself a virtual sorceress when it comes to putting an intoxicating spin on an arrangement.
You might find elements of The Left Banke, Burt Bacharach, and The Divine Comedy in her mix, as well as hints of The Cardigans, Todd Rundgren, Ennio Morricone and Dusty Springfield in places...and don't forget Love, Tahiti 80, Cardinal, and The Bee Gees. But to emphasize the obvious, it's really all Paula's vision, with the indispensable assistance of the rest of her five-piece band and numerous other players, including Eric Matthews (known for his own albums on Sub Pop) on flugelhorn and trumpet. And in "I'd Fall in Love With Anyone" you get the full orchestra, complete with woodwind, brass, and string sections for a sound rarely attempted in the realm of indie pop. Paula Kelley has truly arrived at that place where popular music attains the sublime.