coconut records

Considering that my tastes in film and music are derived from the corky Max Fischer of Rushmore, it would have been difficult for me to write a negative review of Davy, the sophomore album from Jason Schwartzman's one-man-band, Coconut Records. Fortunately for everyone involved, Davy didn't require me to do so. Not since Nada Surf's Let Go has a record been so refreshing.

Everyone's favorite Coppola bottles up pop, not in one of those cheap aluminum cans that we've become so used to, but in a real glass bottle with a top that you need a keychain to open. But once the fizz tickles your ears, it will make you smile.

Heavily influenced by the Beatles, the Beatles and the Beatles, several tracks will bring to mind the simple ingenuity of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Davy's first track and debut single, "Microphone," is what a pop song should be: a classic arrangement of guitar, piano and drums with a catchy chorus that is so infectious the recent epidemic of pink eye will seem like nothing more than a few roommates who farted on each other's pillows. The layered sound behind autobiographical "Drummer" recounts Schwartzman's time in Phantom Planet of The O.C. fame, or as he calls it, "a band that you've heard of."

A melancholy "Saint Jerome" is a meditation on loneliness--more driving along a stretch of highway than crying with dirty magazines and tissues covering your bed. "Any Fun" is a lot of fun, promising that the "hits will keep on coming," which they do for the rest of the album. Although Schwartzman seems to take a nap in the middle of Davy with "Courtyard," the one weak(er) track, he wakes up "Wandering Around."

Playing for a short but significant 28 minutes, Davy is a quintessential pop record, revitalizing a genre that has struggled to compete with today's hybrids. On the final track, "Is this Sound Okay?" Schwartzman asks, "Does it sound okay? I can turn it up." Schwartzman, it sounds great, and yes, please do turn it up. And while you're in California, please make another movie.