The Wishes and the Glitch

Say Hi — whose name was mercifully shortened from Say Hi to Your Mom and by now is more of an Eric Elbogen solo project than a band — doesn't try too many new tricks on The Wishes and the Glitch, an album recorded by the man himself at his home in Seattle, his new headquarters. The same guitars and drum machines and keyboards, plenty of keyboards, layer warmly behind Elbogen's mournful, half-Chris Martin/half-emo voice as he sings his observations of love and heartache. The album, his sixth, actually fits in very nicely with his new location, especially the Seattle-based Barsuk label (from whom Say Hi briefly borrows Harvey Danger's John Roderick and Pedro the Lion's David Bazan), a melodically driven record where the sweetly melancholic lyrics take center stage, where the live instruments keep trying to break into Postal Service indie electronica but never quite make it. Unfortunately, the words themselves don't always stand up to the scrutiny put upon them by the unassuming instrumentation. The chorus of "Zero to Love," instead of playing with the witticism that the title allows, chooses the cliché ("This new heart of mine goes from zero to love in no time"), and while Elbogen often employs a kind of free verse in his rhyme scheme, the words don't deserve the attention they're given because of this, actually sticking out more because of the space allowed, coming across as if they're trying much too hard to be profound and funny and smart. "Magic Beans and Truth Machines," for example, is a little uncomfortable in its forced metaphors ("These magic beans are useless/I got them because she said they'd work like a charm/But she is gone...") and "Apples for the Innocent," too, can't quite achieve the nonchalant insightfulness it strives for. This is not to say there aren't some pretty decent indie pop songs here — the ambiguous "Bluetime," the hopeful "Northwestern Girls" — and nothing on The Wishes and the Glitch is even close to downright bad; but it's a case of over-extension, which although it can be pleasant, never quite achieves the statement it and Say Hi are longing to make.