Album Notes

Mysteries of Life
Beginning to Move

Jake Smith and Fred Love are shoe-in cast members for a bio-pic of the cresting late-80s college-rock turned alternative scene. From Antenna and Blake Babies respectively to The Mysteries of Life, the two have crafted the finest and most understated American pop gestures of recent decades. Since forming the Mysteries of Life in 1995 they’ve released three full-length albums and a clutch of indie EPs, each hinting further at a warmth and singular method that can only be a Midwestern approach to popular songwriting.

Their newest album, Beginning to Move, continues exploration of an astute pop format by mixing Smith’s inimitable guitar melodies, the cymbal-less drum dance of Love, fleeting country flavored micro-arrangements, and a simplicity that conducts itself as an electric crackle. Along with co-writer/guitarist Dale Lawrence (Gizmos, Vulgar Boatmen) and bassist Kenny Childers (Gentleman Caller, Brando), these 12 musical moments loft as refurbished memories streaming from a timeless matrix of AM radio. Smith’s absorption in American Rock History reappear as winks in the lush lyrics of daily life, romantic parables, factory life and the yearning for freedom eternal. The twilight moments and ruckus snap Smith captures through verse and instrumental phrasings are yin and yang.

Despite the shifting cast around Smith and Love, The Mysteries have continually maintained a wholly distinct and continuing arc of musical self. Their roots could easily span from Buddy Holly, Modern Lovers, Elvis Costello and Indianapolis soul equally as tried n’true self-discovery or trial n’ error. While chronicles have followed the group’s tumultuous relationship with RCA, it did result in the mesmerizing and critically powdered (by Greil Marcus no-less) 1996 debut Keep a Secret and ‘98’s Come Clean. Outside of two EPs and a single on indie Flat Earth, Smith formed the No Nostalgia imprint for 2001’s Distant Relative. During recent years Smith has played bass in Lawrence’s Vulgar Boatmen, among various other projects, and Love formed Some Girls with Juliana Hatfield.