Jeremy Porter - Party Of One (2010)

Tracklist

01. Sidewalk Ends
02. Last Time I Saw You Happy
03. Not Like You're Mine
04. Hallmark Holiday
05. Dead On Your Feet
06. When September Passed Us By
07. Out Inside
08. The Turnaround
09. Hundred Bucks

Plymouth, MI-based singer/songwriter Jeremy Porter’s (Fidrych, the Offramps, SlugBug) solo debut is steeped in the kind of loose and earnest slacker Americana that made the Replacements accessible outside of the Twin Cities. Porter’s keen turns of phrase, winsome melodies, and everyman croon feel cut from the same era, and while Party of One may never reach the drunken majesty of a record like Tim or All Shook Down, it operates under the influence of the dirt road masters (Big Star, Gram Parsons, Neil Young) who helped birth them. Standout cuts like “Last Time I Saw You Happy” and the bare-bones “Dead on Your Feet” feel lived in and amiably weary, while the grungy “Not Like You’re Mine” and "When September Passed Us By” suggest a steady diet of Hüsker Dü and the Hold Steady. Even “Hundred Bucks,” with its ghost banjo, wah guitar, and cheap drum machine works despite the home-recorded indie rock gimmickry, proving once again that authenticity can hoist irony up on its shoulders, but never the other way around.

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