It’s hard to take against this, Tony Paglia’s fourth album, as it feels so much a labour of love. Recorded over a two year period in a ‘house by the highway’ (more specifically, a nineteenth century farmhouse in north-east Georgia, USA) ‘Summer Won’t Last’ is a collection of gentle pop songs tinged with folk and hints of psychedelica that, cumulatively, feel like a Polyphonic Spree album recorded with only a fraction of the personnel or budget but with all the soul and longing of a troubled teenager’s secret diary.
The opening track ‘Fever Dream’ takes Paglia’s occasionally fey vocals and spins it over beatlesque, pounding piano, a cheery snare roll and horns arranged and played by his wife, Kimberely. ‘Begin Again’ combines banjo and bar room keyboards to create a sedate love letter, and ‘Snowing’, with its harsh reverb on vocals, is reminiscent of Spector-era Lennon.
‘Don’t Listen’ is a spacey ballad with reverb-drenched vocals soaring over acoustic guitars, and ‘Colorful Nickels’ a dream-like cover of the Black Moth Super Rainbow song. The album is charming and understated, until ‘Emergency Landing’, an upbeat and almost psychedelic-folk stomper complete with whistles and bells, and the final track, ‘The Banshee’ which is twisting, baroque indie-pop.
The lo-fi production of the album fits the songs well – these are small, intimate reflections on relationships set against the slow turn of the seasons, and it’s fascinating to hear instruments such as banjos and loosely tuned pianos being used to create such tender and hymn-like pieces of music. Occasionally, Paglia’s vocals are mixed down too low and simply become submerged by the backing, although sometimes this works, leaving the words floating somewhere in the distance like skywriting or overheard conversations.
Overall, this album has a disarmingly stripped down feel – chairs scrape across the floor, drums sound like boxes being kicked and notes are fat with distortion. It all adds to the rough hewn, home made atmosphere, and I can’t help feeling that our jaded ears need to hear more albums like this. Quietly beautiful.