Peter Galperin

Galperin has a clean and precise singing voice, sometimes over-annunciating in a 70s pop kind of way. As a lyricist he is habitually flinging minor insights that come off as trite. His arrangements might be a hipster spoof on lounge lizardom, but strip away those pleasant vocals and you have the perfect background music for a travelogue video.

Between his earphones, Galperin convinces himself that he's channeling the Uh-Oh era David Byrne on his song Bubblewrap which is the best song on the album. But a few observational witticisms about everyone's favorite stress reliever, set over a marimba with harmonic build does not a Talking Head make. Byrne imbues banal subjects with angst and potentially explosive emotion, like he's one bubble-pop away from loosing it. Galperin sounds like he's writing for Cookie-Jar TV.

When the Sex Pistols sang the nihilistic No Future we felt a real crack in society. Galperin's take in There's No Future is pretty much one snarky comment after another, probably with sips of latte in between. It doesn't help that the rhythm section could be reproduced by a keyboard accompaniment button.

Peter Galperin is a clever guy who would prefer to be a quirky guy. Too smart for this. Unfortunately even his worthy attempts are crushed under the weight of this cheese wheel.

http://www.petergalperin.com

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