When you traffic in, well, let’s call it ultra-melodic, low-crunch folk-pop, you run the risk of eventually showing up on a candlelit and heavily upholstered infomercial hosted by half of Air Supply. And when your first name is Dan, there’s the added risk of getting slapped with the prefix “England” and being paired with John Ford Coley.
No worries for Dan Wilson. With his music-survivor experience and pop-maestro skills, he deftly avoids the soft-rock stigma and makes this solo debut an easy listen without making it easy listening. His is the voice that launched a modern-rock chart smash with Semisonic’s “Closing Time”, and which previously fronted Trip Shakespeare, a cult band cool enough to have covered Thunderclap Newman’s “Something In The Air”. More recently, he has collaborated with artists such as Mike Doughty and the Dixie Chicks, cowriting almost half the songs on the latter’s Taking The Long Way. (A superb version of “Easy Silence”, which appeared on the Chicks’ record, closes Free Life.).
The money quote comes in the opener, “All Kinds”, as Wilson sings the words “all kinds of beautiful” amidst swelling strings. It’s as telling a description of Free Life as you’ll find. At the album’s center are “Come Home Angel” and “Sugar”, both featuring ex-Jayhawk Gary Louris; the songs are seemingly dueling to out-gorgeous each other. And they’re surrounded by plenty of competition.
