Jeremy Fisher – Goodbye Blue Monday

The similarities between Jeremy Fisher and his contemporary singer-songwriters are quite evident on his third album. Fans of Josh Rouse will hear the resemblances, but so will fans of Jason Mraz. And so will fans of Paul Simon’s better work, which suggests the pool of influences for singer-songwriters is not wide. Fisher is, however, a better derivative than most, with a lucent voice and an almost too-easy facility with melody.

Fortunately, he’s not good at everything: He’s bad with women, or at least with those he’s attracted to, and this particular lack of skill enriches his lyrics but rarely embitters his music. “Sula” is his “Cecilia”; there’s plenty of bounce in the opener, “Scar That Never Heals”, though the scar is love; and the internet-video sensation “Cigarette” finds him coughing on the relationship habit with good cheer. In what might even be Canadian fashion (see also the Guess Who), Fisher takes his turn with “American Girls”, paraphrasing Tom Petty’s beat to add punch to the potshots and politics.

Goodbye Blue Monday isn’t just women and broken hearts. “Lay Down (Ballad Of Rigoberto Alpizar)” finds a different narrative to the true story of a man gunned down by an air marshal at a Miami airport, and “Fall For Anything” finishes the album with a simple declaration to believe in…well, something.