‘X-Ray’ Glows in Harmony, Melody

WALTER CLEVENGER

“The Man With the X-Ray Eyes”

Permanent Press

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“I want to make yesterday come back today,” goes one of the fetching refrains on this Costa Mesa pure-popster’s debut CD. Indeed, everything Walter Clevenger sings, plays and composes has direct and undisguised ties to the past.

But it meets the test that applied yesterday and still does today: Clevenger’s songs get you humming along and moving to the beat. No matter how antiquarian in style, when pure pop is done right, it’s indeed for now, people. And Clevenger does it right without a misstep in this dozen-song bouquet.

There’s a mood of Sun-Records-shining-over-Liverpool to most of the material. Grounding himself in rock’s early, country-influenced roots, Clevenger reaches heliotropically for the glowing melodies and harmonies of the early Beatles. The results often recall Nick Lowe and Marshall Crenshaw, two of the most gifted employers of the roots/Beatles synthesis.

Clevenger’s voice isn’t as assured or interesting as his models’, but it’s good enough, with the occasional quaver in pitch or thin spot reminding you of the album’s do-it-yourself, home-studio provenance.

Still, Clevenger, who gets some help on bass and drums but plays several tracks on his own, covers most technical deficiencies with masterful arrangements, especially in his arraying of sweet backing harmony oohs and aahs to flesh out the vocal sound.

The album offers a good mixture of bittersweet ballads and moderate, chug-and-twang rockers, with lots of brisk acoustic rhythm strumming and chiming Rickenbacker riffing.

While paying homage to the past, Clevenger doesn’t really quote from it, as retro-rockers sometimes do, not only to show their respect, but also to comment ironically on their own late-comer status. Clevenger doesn’t seem to have an iota of anxiety about being influenced--he just dives in with innocent enthusiasm, putting his gifted melodic ear and studio savvy to work. The result is an album that can play alongside Lowe and Crenshaw’s works and not sound shabby.

There isn’t a pop songwriter alive who wouldn’t like to have written the sweetly sorrowing, Everlys-worthy melody line of the ballad “Cries of Desperation” or the high-spirited “Love (A Misunderstood Thing).”

Clevenger’s lyrics are simple and to the point--hardly dynamic in their use of language, but good enough to work with the music while outlining aspects of love as we know it, mostly the unrequited forms. “Down to the River,” with its intimations of sin and suicidal atonement, is the lone dark exception.

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While Clevenger’s innocence is refreshing and shouldn’t be undervalued, his results aren’t as resonant as such retro-rockers as Wilco, Liquor Giants and Richard X. Heyman. Heyman is more ambitious in his themes and insights, and Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and Liquor Giants’ Ward Dotson are also more lyrically inventive and emotionally naked than Clevenger, and more apt to chafe in interesting ways at having to wear stylistic hand-me-downs.

It will be interesting to hear if, on his next album, Clevenger can push harder to exert the gray matter between those gifted ears. But for listeners who think, rightly, that an enlivening pop tune is worth plenty on its own, this one’s a keeper.

(Available from Permanent Press Recordings, 14431 Ventura Blvd., No. 331, Sherman Oaks, CA 91423. Web site: https://users.deltanet.com/~walterc.

* Walter Clevenger and the Dairy Kings, Film Star, Little Children and Exit play today at 9 p.m. at Linda’s Doll Hut, 107 S. Adams St., Anaheim. $6. (714) 533-1286. Clevenger and the Dairy Kings also play for free Saturday at 4 p.m. at Pepperland Records, 850 N. Tustin Ave., Orange. (714) 639-0909.

Ratings range from * (poor) to **** (excellent), with three stars denoting a solid recommendation.