Now Playing: 'Love Is A Dirty Word' from Rat A Tat Tat by Jason Collett

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

There are few things more tantalizing in modern rock than a songwriter that rips a hole in the fabrics of both time and taste, stands outside them and makes a sound that could have been produced yesterday as easily as it could have been made one, two, three or four decades ago. Could that be called timeless work? Sure – but more accurate would be to say that, no matter when the record in question was released, it would have found receptive ears because the music transcends shifting tastes and values and speaks in a common language about themes that are imminently relatable for anyone; everyone can take something away from it.

Those sorts of records are rare, but it's the sort that Jason Collett has made with Rat A Tat Tat.

From the opening back porch folk/R&B rumination of “Rave On Sad Songs” (maybe it's a little more 'garage' than 'back porch' given where the album was recorded), Collett lays out a banquet of long-held hard feelings (“Happiness is for beginners”) set against music that defies easy categorization because it incorporates a ton of established and revered sounds and intermingles them evenly; the more romantic and cynical sides of Bob Dylan get slammed together with a conglomeration of otherworldly David Bowie Phillie-ish space rock (“Lake Superior”), sidewalkin' Motown (“Love is A Dirty Word”), the delicacy of Paul Simon (“Cold Blue Halo”) and even late-Beatles-esque acid-touched balladry (“Winnipeg Winds”) in equal measures and added to these songs with love. For some singers, such wild genre amalgamations might come off as scattered or unfocused but, here, Collett holds the whole thing together with a consistent, folksy tenor that never wavers in tone and so keeps the focus centered perfectly. No matter which way the songs might turn, there's always Collett's unique sibilance and sensibility behind each change  and, even when he reaches in to sounds that should sit like a pickle in a punchbowl (like the Creole soul of “Vanderpool Vanderpool”) it comes across as just being more flavor added for listeners to revel in when they find it.

Now, anyone that followed Collett through the far more rockist timbres that characterized Here's To Being Here could have seen an album like Rat A Tat Tat coming, but that doesn't mean the record won't generate excitement. There were roots to be found in Being Here certainly, and they did imply the possibility of a release like Rat A Tat Tat, it's just thrilling to hear that possibility actually come together.

Artist:
www.arts-crafts.ca/jasoncollett/index2.php
www.myspace.com/jasoncollett

Download:
Jason Collett – "Little Tiger" – To Wit To Woo EP

Further Reading:
Ground Control's review of Here's To Being Here.

Album:
Rat A Tat Tat comes out on March 9, 2010. Pre-order it here on Amazon .