But since the release of Blood Visions a few years back, his ascent to a sort of indie fame has been startling – if not for him, then for listeners and fans who remember the Reatards in all of their effed up glory. I was able to interview him not too long after his first solo disc was released – prior to fervor that’s grown up around him. And despite the innumerable stories that float around about how much of a difficult dude he is, Reatard seemed like a normal guy on the phone. And it’s through that guise that I view him. He’s not a (pseudo) rock star, he’s a music geek and an Adverts fan.
Since that last full length, Reatard embarked on a sizable singles parade with Matador – even working out a split with Sonic Youth – and most recently releasing a disc with Thee Oh Sees. But spread out over these countless offerings a slew of stylistic derivatives cropped up. It’s not necessarily to his detriment – the palette that he works from has been drastically expanded – but all of this has left the prospect of taking a listen to his new disc, Watch Me Fall, as a cold one. My initial fears aside, it ended up being better than what I expected – and certainly better than the split with Sonic Youth. But that doesn’t mean that a few places on this newly minted Matador disc aren’t problematic.
Gone from Blood Visions are the overt Adverts’ cops and instead Reatard decides to move into more of a pop territory occupied by the likes of his New Zealand heroes. He’d probably decry that as reductive, but the differences between anything on that first full length and “I’m Watching You” or “Wounded” is pretty apparent. That’s not meant to detract from the inherent value of the work here – there are still a number of stunners like “Faking It” and “Before I Was Caught.” And while some fan(atics) might not fully appreciate to popness of Watch Me Fall, after a few listens everyone’ll be sure to understand. Regardless of that, though, this still seems like a good therapy session for Mr. Reatard. And he needs it – or so I’ve heard.