WIN A CD!American Pop Rock: Flynn's On Your Way

Can it be anything more than a guilty pleasure? I’ve been a music snob since discovering that not everyone believed a-ha was more than a one-hit wonder. That left me quickly dismissing music that was too much pop, too much fluff, too. . .popular. Now here I am about to admit that there’s still some Pop Music in my collection. Today’s artist slides right in there with pop hooks, pop lyrics, pop production, but hey, it’s the perfect stuff for a sunny, spring day.

Flynn is a Boston-based fronted by Flynn (Martin Crotty). Crotty (guitar/vocals/songwriter) and Lex Lianos (drums) were part of the Cliffs of Doneen which scored minor success in 1991 with the song “Through an Open Window,” hitting the Billboard’s Modern Rock Top 10 seeing rotation on MTV. (Anyone got this album? I wanted to see if I remembered the song, but I couldn’t find an audio sample online).

So the Cliffs broke up, and then the story goes: Flynn falls off a 35-foot ladder, has serious back/spine surgery, months of rehabilitation, and then began writing music again with his friend, Lex. I don’t mean to sound jaded; this must have been a terrible ordeal, and for Flynn to back making music and touring is quite the testimony to hard work, strength of spirit, and well. . .a second chance.

Perhaps that’s why I sound slightly jaded: I want more from the music given the life-changing event that Flynn has gone through. Yet, on Flynn’s debut album, On Your Way, what we get are lines like: “Your conscience isn’t clear/You’re faking crocodile tears/Sincerely insincere” (“Love is Blind”); or “I wish I could believe everything I read/I wish I could conceive every thought I feel/I wish I wouldn’t dream that only makes it worse/I wish you would believe in me” (“Believe”). We’re playing with platitudes and cliches here, but that only brings me back to my original point: it’s a guilty pleasure to be enjoying pop music.

On Your Way earns a place in my collection, because the opening acoustic guitar on the title track is so infectious, a bluesy-strumming hook. And that’s what we want from pop music, right? Who cares that I’ve heard the chorus in so many other songs (“Let love show you the way”)? Who cares, because what we’ve got here is a catchy morsel of melody and beat. Sure, it’s not a high-fiber morsel, full of vitamins and layers of flavor. It is what it is: the sweet shop, the ice cream cone, the chocolate bar. Plain, simple, pop pleasure.

Interestingly, this same bluesy-strumming hook gets slowed down for the sixth track, “Don’t Mind,” sounding even more like the guitar during the opening credits of the TV show Just Shoot Me. Play the first 10 seconds of both tracks back to back, and you might feel like Flynn’s only one song in him. However, add the fact that Flynn has branched out to write music for the theatrical production, Spider-Man Live!, and then you realize that he may be repeating himself on purpose. The guitar riff works like a theme, with variation, something applauded in musicals, soundtracks, and symphonies. I think we’ve got a songwriter who is willing to do the same on a pop album.

One more thing about wanting more in the music from Flynn’s life-changing experience: I can’t help but to want the believing and loving and hoping and life-direction to be coming from faith in God. These songs seem ripe with questions and answers that normally would be a Christian’s testimony about Jesus, but Flynn never finishes the sentence. Where I would say, “Let love show you the way through Jesus Christ,” Flynn simply says, “Let love show you the way.” I want more.

I know that all of this hand-wringing doesn’t really set you up to believe that Flynn deserves to be in your music collection, but I’m not kidding when I say that this album will become a summer staple. Whether the backyard, the beach, or a car trip, Flynn can be a true companion for the spring and summer.

Get yourself the sweets!
Jerry of Sheboygan Falls wins a free copy of Flynn’s 2002 follow up album, Let the Show Begin.

Thank you to Flynn and Ralph Jacodine for the review copy and giveaway CD.