Nickel Creek - This Side (CD, 2002)

by Joe Ross, 06/14/2004

The album "Nickel Creek" currently has more air-time than any other around our house, surpassing the likes of Natalie MacMaster (superlative Celtic fiddler) and Blue Highway with Rob Ickes....Because most of us know Nickel Creek only from that first album, most of this review will comprise a comparison of the two.

Nearly half of the first album was instrumental. This makes sense when all three band members are award winning musicians. But "This Side" has only one. Whereas the instrumentals on "Nickel Creek" had either a bluegrass or Celtic flavor with a newgrass/jazz/swing approach, the "Smoothie Song" (featuring bouzouki) is more of a bluesy-grass tune. I like it. I want more of it, but there's only one. Vocally the two albums are similar. Sara sings with a wispy, airy voice and Chris is very animated in his interpretations of misery. Sean sings lead on two of the songs, and "heartfelt" comes to mind.

Most people think that Nickel Creek is newgrass. I think this is misleading as a description of Nickel Creek's first album, and doesn't apply to "This Side" either. Newgrass, as it has evolved, uses "acoustic" instruments with rock-n-roll chord patterns, scales, and rhythms to arrange old rock songs, or songs with the same feel. That is not Nickel Creek's approach. Most newgrass is much more formulaic, and contains few surprises. Nickel Creek is beyond newgrass.

Ask why we buy any particular record. People might be interested in a source of new instrumental licks. I know Chris Thile's banjo-like mandolin cross-picking from the first album is certainly inspiring, and both Sara and Sean play some things people will be emulating for a long time. The first album has already rejuvenated "Cuckoo's Nest" and "The Fox", and I know of several bands that are performing "When You Come Back Down" and "The Hand Song." How about back up ideas? Sean's backup on "Nickel Creek" is incredible and definitely gets your head going in a different direction. But that's all on the first album. I can't see people adopting many tunes from "This Side" for any of these reasons. There's only the "Smoothie Song" for an instrumental, and while I'd like to learn it I don't imagine it would go over very well at jam sessions. Sara and Sean are great, but there is no tour-de-force like "In the House of Tom Bombadil" or "Robin and Marian" from the first album.

Besides the idiosyncratic differences, the gestalt of the two albums is also divergent. "Nickel Creek" seems complete. The vocals fit the songs-they actually make the songs. Backup and fills are complimentary to both the melody and lyrics; there are no inconsistent pieces. Personal tastes aside, you get the feeling that they achieved the sound they were after. The many interwoven breaks of the instrumentals, with their harmonies and counterpoints, leave no question that they love those songs and play them like nobody else can. It sounds like music they've been playing for the last ten years and have honed to perfection. "This Side" seems immature in comparison. The lone instrumental piece is well done, but has nowhere near the complexity or subtlety of any off the first album. The breaks are independent; each simply begins when the other ends. The backup and fill behind many of the vocals is technically perfect but doesn't have that bespoke fit of "When You Come Back Down" or "The Lighthouse" from the first album.

If you're expecting standard "newgrass," looking for a bonanza of new licks and jam tunes, looking for an extension of the honed precision playing of the first album, this isn't it. If you want something completely different, with some fresh subject matter, melodic arrangements that don't fit into any one key, acoustic string playing that is a cut above the rest, and some musical ideas that you haven't had-here you go.

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