The first time I was exposed to Fences was in Macklemore’s “Otherside” and right off the bat I liked what I was hearing. I enjoyed what he brought to the song and the real sense of despair and loss his vocals lent the chorus. I felt like this, drug addiction, was something he’s dealt with in his own life and understood so when I pulled up his 2010 album Fences I was a bit shocked at what I heard.I was expecting more Sufjan Stevens and less Echosmith, but that’s not what I got. I liked the album, it was a fun album from start to finish and he definitely covered some heavy subject matter, despite the somewhat upbeat tune carried by most songs on the album. Sometimes it’s good to be surprised but here on Fences I just felt kind of… meh. I don’t love it, I don’t hate it and a handful of songs even made it on to some of my heavy rotation playlists, but overall I felt lukewarm about the entire thing.Then Fences released Lesser Oceans… and absolutely nothing changed. It’s not that I hate it, because I don’t. I enjoy some of the instrumentation, I like some of his lyrics and hell I even like a couple of times when they intersect and create a song I enjoy, like “My Mountain Is Cold” and “Running Off The Gods”. On the flip side, there are also times when neither lyrics or beats solidly land, like with “The Lake” and “Dogs At The Table” which are both just plain not good.
Here’s what I think would completely turn around Lesser Oceans and make it so much more tolerable from first to finish. Acoustic. Seriously, Fences should be an almost 100% acoustic fella. Adding some light electric tones like in “Running Off The Gods” make for nice accents to break up the monotony that can occur in all acoustic albums, but they should be minimal; think pocket squares not pink plaid overcoats.
As it sits right now Fences Lesser Oceans is just overall unimpressive and doesn’t bring anything new or interesting to the table when surveying what’s out there these days. Oh sure he weaves in some angsty swearword riddled lines and some upbeat mentions of death, but emo already has that schtick covered. I honestly do hope Fences puts out an all acoustic album soon though because I think it could be great. Lesser Oceans however, is just mediocre at best.