New Middle Class
New Middle Class
2nd Mortgage Records
1999
11 tracks
New Middle Class is husband and wife duo Barbara and Mike Borok, supported by a half-dozen musical friends. The music is difficult to classify, not so much because it crosses or mixes genres as because it takes its own unique direction. Reading the information sent along with the CD, it seems that the Borok's think they are doing folk music. Far from it. If anything, this music seems more some variation on pop rock from a bygone era, perhaps the Seventies.
The publicity materials assert the high quality of these songs, citing the numerous musical awards that this release either has won or has come near to winning. The underlining is probably not necessary as the quality of the writing and performance here is self evident. This classy duo clearly knows how to make a song work on all levels.
Did I say classy? For some reason, the performances on this release remind me of Manhattan Transfer. If I step back and think about this rationally, I find there is no obvious similarity. Still, each time I play these songs, Manhattan Transfer pops into my mind. It's something about the vocals, I think, perhaps the well-defined harmonies this couple is able to achieve. Or it could be the sometimes lush orchestrations that evoke the music of an earlier time. Here is the kind of classy performance some may think disappeared with the great acts of the Forties.
The vocals here are superb. Mike Borok sings well if not with much innovation. He has a sweet bright voice that gives his lead vocals character and perfectly complements his wife's vocals when he is singing backup. His lead vocals tend to fall somewhere between pop rock and singer-songwriter, but with more polish than can often be expected from singers in either genre. Barbara Borok's sound shifts from song to song. At times she reminds me of Susan Jacks. At other times, her voice seems a blend of early Seventies soft pop singers. And at yet other times, that pop sound takes on a rock and roll edge. Through it all, in whichever mode she sings, there's an underlying feel of a jazz singer trying her wings.
In some ways, this music seems to defeat itself. The lyrics are well written. The music is competently written and performed. The whole thing is very pretty. It's all too perfect, too easy to let slip into the background like comfortable wallpaper. This is classic easy listening music, the sort they play on some radio stations during drive-time so listeners can have a non-intrusive background while driving home from work. That's a shame, because some of these lyrics should intrude, should be heard.
A simpler, less lush treatment might better serve these lyrics. Here are some lovely personal stories, some social commentary, even some disturbing concepts. Pulled back to a more folk or singer-songwriter approach, these songs might work better at the level of story.
There's a sort of lullaby here that should disturb any listener, certainly any child of the Sixties who has seen the ways the world has changed since. Set to a sweet melody, "Cradle" chronicles the last four decades, from the assassination of Kennedy to more contemporary and further reaching threats. This is what today's world has to offer a child. The only glimmer of hope in this song is that "...maybe things will get better someday/if they don't get worse." All in all, this song paints a pretty depressing picture.
"I Was Born" paints a wonderful picture of the world from a very young child's point of view. Here, the child is the centre of the universe. Nothing existed before the child. Nothing exists without the child. Nothing matters more than the child. This is the child's view of the world. Those who may not recall their own infancy must surely be reminded of the infant children they have raised.
There are songs here about consumerism, about obsessive love, about the pop music phenomenon, about the ways in which television has altered our individual view of the world, about dreams dreamed and lost, about alcoholism (I think) or at least loneliness, about the tragic Red River Flood, and other subjects.
New Middle Class is a unique release with some interesting things to say. It seems to me that the songs here might have worked better if the Borok's had trusted their words and music more and stuck to the idea that they are folk or at least singer-songwriter artists rather than hide behind orchestration that stops just short of being overdone. While it's easy to understand why these songs win awards, I would prefer to see the ideas they contain made more accessible.
For more information on the music of this talented duo from New York State, you can visit the website for New Middle Class.
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Review written: January 29, 2004
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