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A 27-year old troubadour with a mess of hair hiding his eyes released one of the best debut albums of the 2000s back in 2001. That’s what I said, one of the best debuts of all of the 2000s.
Produced by Brad Wood, known for his great work with Liz Phair, Pete Yorn was a hybrid of slacker, folk singer and garage rocker. It instantly caught my attention and I grabbed the CD at Tower Records, threw my money down, and listened to it on my ride home.
The CD is musicforthemorningafter and it’s today’s feature on I Own That CD!
Yorn not only wrote all the music and lyrics, but performed almost all the instruments on the CD. There was a sleepiness in his voice but the lyrics and how he presented them were beautiful. Acoustic guitars lead the way but it’s far from a quiet folk ride. Labels aside (garage rock, slacker rock), Yorn established himself quickly as a great songwriter.
Favorites include “Strange Condition”, “Just Another” and “EZ”. The songs remind me of later-in-life The Replacements/Paul Westerburg. He drones (in a good way) through lyrics that focus on what so much music did back in the early 2000s - longing and alienation.
Yorn was concerned pre-release that the music was all over the place and that the label was not going to be happy. That, of course, couldn’t be further from the truth. The label gave a push to the adult contemporary, adult alternative, and modern rock formats. Quite the trifecta.
The album was about five years in the making. After graduating from Syracuse University with a speech communications degree in the spring of 1996, he moved to Los Angeles with some friends/bandmates. They were certain it would only take a matter of a few gigs before the labels came a-knockin’. As those expectations went unmet, Yorn began to further hone his craft with steady gigs at L.A. singer/songwriter haven Largo, thanks to Adam Cohen — son of singer Leonard Cohen and a college pal of Yorn’s.
He toured extensively, opening for Semisonic and Blues Traveler and got great help from MTV2 which frequently aired his first couple videos.
My favorite song is the gorgeous “On Your Side” - The lyrics and feeling I have swaying (and head nodding) to the song are 31 year old Dave standing in the 9:30 Club.
The closing songs, “EZ” and “Simonize” are perfect endings to a CD that has a novel feel - each song a chapter.
So dip your toes back to 2001 and if you want, you can borrow my copy.
Years ago I had an amazing CD collection. Many of the albums on your list were recommended to me by the owner of a small independent music shop in Brooklyn (including Pete Yorn). Long gone ..along with my CD collection which was stolen out of my hubcapless 99 Nissan Altima, probably around 2004. Between life and moving and digital not much remains. But somehow George Conway's twitter feed brought me to your Pete Yorn post and distracted me in the most pleasant way. So just wanted to say thanks. Your inspired me to resume collecting. Will be checking back here for inspiration :) Closing out here with The Verve Bittersweet.