Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Advance Base Battery Life

review by dave heaton

If Casiotone for the Painfully Alone’s new CD Advance Base Battery Life sounds a lot like a continuation of his 2007 album Etiquette, maybe that’s because it collects songs that CFTPA, aka Owen Ashworth, released on singles and compilations and such around that time, from 2004 to 2007. Plus, Advance Base Battery Life has two songs featuring vocalist Jenny Herbinson, who sang “Scattered Pearls” on Etiquette; a duet with Katy Davidson (Dear Nora), who sang “Holly Hobby” on Etiquette, and an alternate version of “Holly Hobby” sung by Ashworth himself. So if it sounds like an extension of Etiquette, that’s because it kind of is…

…which is a great thing, especially if like me you thought Etiquette was not just the best Casiotone album yet but one of the better albums of the last few years, which a warm electronic-pop sound and thoughtful, moving and funny slice-of-life accounts. What’s great about Advance Base Battery Life isn’t just that it extends the sound and feeling of that album. It’s also a well-arranged song collection in its own right. A breeze to listen to, it flows naturally through sections, in a way: starting with a few songs featuring other vocalists, then a few featuring Ashworth, then some covers.

Those opening songs are the two Jenny Herbinson-sung songs, both pleasantly Etiquette-esque, and the absolutely splendid “Old Panda Days”, where No Kids’ Nick Krgovich’s voice smoothly fits into the Casiotone world of drum breaks, tears, and humor.

The middle section includes a string of sad songs with southwestern, even country, overtones: one about “Lonesome New Mexican Nights”, a short blaming-a-city-for-your-heartbreak song (“Missoula”), and an intriguing little ditty about a man who rents out an entire movie theatre so he can be alone, watch a film, and cry (“The Only Way to Cry”). Then there’s “It’s a Crime”, one of the CD’s highlights. It’s very spare, mainly Ashworth’s singing, a few guitar notes, and a beat. That starkly brings out the feeling in the song, which is sad and wry, an expression of outrage that’s really just one of longing and lonesomeness. He sings, revealing more with each word: “it’s a crime / that you’re kissing on that girl for all to see / yeah it’s a crime / that she’s going home with you and not with me.”

The charm of Ashworth’s music comes too from his readiness to incorporate into his sound any music that makes him happy. A fun stretch of Advance Base Battery Life starts with Ashworth and Davidson doing Missy Elliott’s “Hot Boyz”, followed by an electro-voiced Ashworth taking on “Born in the USA” with his brother Gordon (of Concern), and then a more reverent “Streets of Philadelphia”. Then there’s Paul Simon’s “Graceland”, which is the cover that works best, for some strange reason. It’s a great song, don’t get me wrong, but Simon’s singing had a touch of the pompous to it which Ashworth’s more ramshackle delivery erases. That happens without damaging the scope of the song, that American road-trip/pained interior emotional journey thing. When he sings those lines “losing love is like a window in your heart / ‘cause everybody sees you’re blown apart”, the pain gets across. Plus, the organ tones and fuzzy drum machine beats just sound cool…

…which is the intersection his music has always been born from: what sounds cool crossing sad but funny emotional experiences. Advance Base Battery Life may be just a reminder album, in advance of his upcoming new studio album Vs. Children, but it too carries those connecting qualities well. And it works as an album, stands right with his others.

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