Jonathan Rundman, Public Library - 37m 20s

Tracks & Durations

1. Smart Girls	3:41
2. Falling Down	2:59
3. Second Language	4:16
4. Narthex	3:56
5. 747s	2:39
6. Almost Never See	2:51
7. The Serious Kind	3:03
8. Librarian	3:50
9. Park River Bridge	3:34
10. Cuban Missile Crisis	3:44
11. Every Town's the Same	2:39

Note: The information about this album is acquired from the publicly available resources and we are not responsible for their accuracy.

Review

Public Library is the new album by singer/songwriter Jonathan Rundman. The album's thematic centerpiece is the power-pop vocational anthem "Librarian" where Rundman claims the role of musical bibliotechician, gathering works of fiction, non-fiction, news, and history and presenting them in rock & roll form for access by the masses. "I bring order out of chaos, I shine light into the dark," Rundman sings, "because power comes from knowledge just like fire from a spark." Rundman's precision with melody and wordplay have been the foundation of his music throughout his career and Public Library continues with more of the same, although with a richer sonic backdrop thanks to producer Walter Salas-Humara of The Silos.

The album opens with "Smart Girls," Rundman's most radio-worthy recording yet, where he raves about the female intellect over huge guitars and grooving drums. Functional romantic relationships are celebrated in the rollicking "747s" and the lovely "Falling Down". Ecclesiastical architecture is the unlikely focus of the observational rocker "Narthex." The geography of the American Midwest has been a recurring image throughout Rundman's repertoire, and he revisits it here in the ominous "Almost Never See" and the mysterious "Park River Bridge."

Political and social issues are also explored throughout the album. "The Serious Kind" has folk-classic potential, and it sums up the troubling realities of the post-9/11 world with simple elegance. Rundman sings "Second Language" from the perspective of a teenage immigrant girl over the pulsing of a string quartet. In "Cuban Missile Crisis" Rundman uses the precarious Cold War conflict as the setting for a love story, with eerie parallels to contemporary global events. The album closes with an exhilarating acoustic jam session "Every Town's the Same" where Rundman details his past few years as a folk-rock troubadour facing the cultural phenomenon sociologists call "placelessness."

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