At some point, megalomania, ego and vanity eventually give way to genuinely bizarre, deviant behavior and with Soft Power, singer/songwriter/producer Gonzales has found – and crossed – that point. On first listen to Soft Power, the average modern rock listener’s brain recoils in horror as the lead-off track “Working Together” replays every sappy sound of the Seventies from Bee Gees-esque harmonized vocals to weepy piano bar pattering to heart-warming but trite sentimentality. You find yourself hitting stop quickly. This can’t be right. There’s got to be a punch line in there that you missed. By the photo on the back cover of Soft Power, this man that looks like a walk-on extra in Rocky Horror Picture Show can’t be serious. You hit play again expecting the same opening song to not be there – but it is.
…And it isn’t a one-time diversion. There’s no chance that my reaction was unique, Gonzales stands alone in modern rock as a wholly unique figure; no one’s doing what he’s doing anymore and no one’s done it in a couple of decades. For the first six tracks of the album, the singer re-examines and faithfully reproduces the strains of such ivory-tinkling 1970s songwriters as Peter Cetera, Billy Vera and The Bee Gees complete with disco-issued, syncopated string sections that punctuate the end of verses and flourish through choruses in the up-tempo numbers and wail white-boy R&B in the slower ones. You want to cry because it’s so well-played but so anachronistically written and arranged that you don’t know what to make of it.
Then it happens. With “Apology”, the image cracks and everything about this curious record snaps into focus: Gonzales isn’t an anachronism, what Soft Power represents is a potentially lethal combination of dry wit and remarkable instrumental prowess. “Apology” plays almost like a genuine apology to listeners for letting the joke go on so long (central line: “And all the reasons that I gave so I would not be the asshole that I am”) but there’s bliss waiting in the tracks beyond it and because of that one song too, the preceding production seems brilliant. Recontextualized in this way, “Slow Down” becomes an uproarious tribute to poor relationships and “Working Together” is still bad, but funny when you realize that your own involuntary reflex at listening isn’t the only gag.
As the album continues, the songs improve into the stark “Singing Something” and hilarious “Fortunately, Unfortunately” that are a little more rubber-faced in their mock modesty and maniacally funny in their oh-so-serious delivery. Listening to Soft Power after Gonzales’ jig is up is far more rewarding because listeners then understand where the shtick is going and why it somehow looks familiar: Gonzales is a very astute, very smart and very talented songwriter whose greatest joy is messing with his audience. Andy Kauffman would be proud.
Soft Power will be released on June 3, 2008
For more information visit www.gonzpiration.com or myspace.com/gonzpiration
