Tony Sly – Sad Bear – Review

When No Use For A Name vocalist, Tony Sly, decided to walk a similar path as many aging punk outfit leaders and forge on with a solo career, their wasn’t much doubt in my mind that his drunken self-adventures would be perfect journalistic fodder. After a brief yet telling debut album “12 Song Program,” fans inevitably waited for Tony’s much more expansive sophomore album. Once again relying on booze to fuel his truth-guided writing and an bare-all acoustic guitar to act out the words, it seems that the new full-length, “Sad Bear” looks to continue Tony Sly‘s depressing and honest solo experiment.

Right from the start of this record, Tony’s bar-friendly acoustics, plucky banjos and layered crooning feel like a perfect successor to his previous outing, “12 Song Program,” topping this musical sundae with a familiar cherry of blunt and often non-rhyming, yet insightful lyrics. The introspective and ponderous album opener “Dark Corner” as well as its close relative, “Devonshire And Crown,” both set us walking on a dimly lit road of realistic, quasi-despair, with snippets like “You’re sleeping, I’m already boozing. All the cool kids are speaking their minds, but I cannot hear. ‘Cause people are sounding like white noise these days, they fancy themselves a critic.” Tony exercises his astute observational metaphors and  justifiable quarrels with god and religion on the teaming tracks, “Discomfort Inn” and the unsubtle, “Hey God” — belting beleaguered qualms like, “Hey god I’ve got a message for ya, I don’t think you exist. It’s not just the facts that are stacked against you, that tell it like it is.” Even though most singer/songwriters like to paint expressively bold and exaggerating portraits in their music with their lyrics, Tony Sly holds back no punches, relaying stories from the drunkenly depressing (“Burgies, Basics And You”), to hateful surrendering (“The Monster”), to the eventual brief retreat to prideful happiness in “Homecoming.”

Musically, the record resonates with its title (and even its awesome album art), sticking to a path of tried-and-true, lonesome acoustic guitars, with a bar or two of backing pianos, and a dash of modest violins and even a mandolin. As this is an acoustic album, “Sad Bear” stays stripped down and utilizes the empty space to emphasize its loneliness, which just adds another layer to an already potently moody effort — even if much of the album (mostly all two minute songs) feel a bit recycled from similar songs. Tony’s vocals have been pulled higher in the mix this time around, which make his mid-level crone and honest lyrics a center piece for the record, portraying his palpable dejection. This effort has trimmed the fat of the previous album, sticking to bare, acoustic-driven, pub-songs. Some will find it a bit too sad-sack, while others (including me) acknowledge its moving earnestness and practical direction.

Tony Sly has delivered another surly world view with his latest record, but one that happens to be as sincere and honest, as it is bleak. So if truthful words and simple acoustic jams are your cup of tea, pick up “Sad Bear” and give it a spin. (Don’t be too happy while you’re doing it though!)

Score: 3.75 (out of 5)

Release Date: October 11th, 2011
Record Label: Fat Wreck Chords
Genre: Acoustic
RIYL: Joey Cape, Bad Astronauts, No Use For A Name

Track Listing:
1. Dark Corner
2. Devonshire and Crown
3. Discomfort Inn
4. Hey God
5. Therapy
6. Burgies, Basics and You
7. In the End
8. Frances Stewart
9. Homecoming
10 The Monster
11. Flying South
12. San Mateo Fog Line