I've said it before, and I dare say knowing my lazy ass I will say it again, but I love E.Ps. So many musicians when forced to record just a handful of songs finally realize that quality kicks quantities ass eight times out of ten. Or maybe they don't realize, maybe it just happens and they go on to put four or five pointless fillers in to boost that full length album next time around. Oh and E.Ps are easier to review, and quicker. Hey I may be lazy but I am up front about it.
One assumes that Paxton could fill up a longer product with ease, if only because he appears to be a natural storyteller, using words and rhymes admirably to tell his small slice of life tales with wit, sarcasm, style and occasional veiled venom. His publicist insists on constantly linking him with Lou Reed, Bowie and Ray Davies, which is a mistake too many PR people make. Leave that crap till the artist has sold his first million please, it isn't going to work on any music journalist I know anyway, money, drugs even flattery maybe, but hyperbole no.
OK negativity over because the E.P itself is an unquestionable joy. Paxton is a young artist, who actually has stories and opinions worth hearing. At the age of twelve he was orphaned, a couple of years later he left home for life on the road, complete with fake ID and a guitar. He ended up in New York via Nashville, where he was taken under the wing of industry veteran Nat Weiss who had previously worked with Cat Stevens, James Taylor and The Beatles.
That is as good a grounding as anyone needs in this business anyway, and it probably explains Paxton's slightly askew view of the world. The first track is a mini classic called 'What's It Like To Be You', which deals with being on the wrong side of a discriminating club bouncer. The whole concept of someone being better, cooler and more deserving as a human being because their hair, clothes and looks are more in tune with 'now' has probably never been more intelligently handled. Lyrically it is clever without trying to be, if only Alanis understood this basic concept my life would be so much better. Sorry I'm off on that tangent again, but I mean why, why does everyone think she is so talented, I mean oops sorry looks like that therapy didn't work after all.
Next is 'A Little Better' which is more of the same thing, with some really excellent rhyming, as he gets in 'vanity, profanity and humanity' in the space of about four seconds. Like it's predecessor it deals with image and shallowness but in a slightly different context as he sets about debunking the myth 'every day in every way I am getting better and better'. Which of course is false, I mean if we are getting better and better as a society why do we still get spectacles like Celine remarrying her geriatric husband in a fake Egyptian, totally Vegas ceremony, or starvation or Alanis selling millions and millions of records.
Track three is "How The Love Turns Around" a love song from the wrong end of a relationship, simpler than the other tracks on this E.P it is nevertheless still more than worthy of its place here. The E.P ends with 'The Closing' a song written for an ex-band mate who died, it examines having to deal with the putting away of physical items of one who is no longer around. It is a remarkable and touching little song, performed by Paxton solo with just his acoustic guitar for company. I can give it no more praise than to say it comes across even to an old cynic like me as a genuine song.
I have focused here on the lyrical strength of Paxton, but he, and the members of the band around him, know how to construct and carry a tune as well. He works a variation of the old happy tunes with deeper lyrics ala The Cure, The Smiths and lots of other bands that start with The. This is an E.P destined to spend more than its fair share of time in my CD player, there is something infectious about it, and I strongly suggest you give it a listen at CDBaby.com, and then give Paxton one more sale, and therefore take one away from Alanis.

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