MOJAVE 3
Puzzles Like You
4AD
· Slowdive discovers The Beach Boys.
Mojave 3 have always been criminally underrated (a trend some would say carries on from their days as shoegazers Slowdive). Where 2000’s Excuses For Travelers was a pitch-perfect journey through dusty Americana (all the attention still went to Mercury Rev instead), 2003’s Spoon and Rafter was a shot at bigger themed soft-rock epics that set a new definition for a "slow-grower" of an album.
It’s a bit of a surprise then when Puzzles Like You kicks off the cowboy boots for a Shins-style review of Brian Wilson’s teenage symphonies to God. While Mojave 3 were definitely diluted by solo outings by both lead lad Neil Halstead and his girl Friday Rachel Goswell in 2002 and 2004, respectively, Puzzles Like You pulls everything back together in the name of driving AM radio pop that goes down easy. The occasional ballad lullaby helps to lull the proceedings (the gorgeous "Most Days" for one), but Mojave 3 aren’t content to be simply sleepy-time balladeers anymore. The occasional lap steel and banjo touches are still in place (most effectively on "Running With Your Eyes Closed"), but play second fiddle to a rejuvenated sense of pop songcraft.
Does it always work? Usually. Halstead deserves credit as an old-fashioned songwriter of the 1970s school. That The Shins and Belle and Sebastian (two acts that Halstead seems particularly fond of) still have better tunes is all that keeps Puzzles Like You from kicking off a quiet riot of its own. But hey, maybe Halstead’s beat us all to the punch with "Big Star Baby’s" singalong chorus of "I don’t want to be the big star baby / Anyway / Is that OK?" As the brains behind Mojave 3’s perfectly pleasant discography, perhaps that admission of just wanting to make pretty music for those who really get it is more than enough.
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