Flak Magazine: Review of The Clarks' Another Happy Ending, 06-27-02

Despite its longstanding image as a blue-collar city, Pittsburgh has a lot more going for it than its port and US Steel headquarters. White collar Fortune 500 companies can be found within city limits, too, so the sight of denim-clad laborers and suit-and-tie professionals attending a Pirates game — or any other leisure event — shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone from outside the area.

In some ways, The Clarks, a Pittsburgh-based foursome, mirror their hometown's dual business identity. A working-class guitar band since forming in the late '80s, they have become savvy roots-rock executives who still carry their lunch pails to the job.

The Clarks turned a corner with 2000's Let It Go, their fifth studio effort and first for Razor & Tie. Producer Justin Niebank, who has worked with Blues Traveler and Eric Clapton, helped to give the aforementioned Clarks disc a nice ready-for-commercial-radio shine, and he's done the same for Another Happy Ending.

As usual, singer-guitarist Scott Blasey has written the bulk of the songs, earnestly covering relationships and/or emotions from a first-person perspective on such tunes as "All the Things I Wanted" and "Wasting Time." Bassist Greg Joseph, usually good for a few songs, has a hand in five on Another Happy Ending, the best being the self-penned "Maybe" and "Twist My Arm." Guitarist Rob James and drummer Dave Minarik Jr. chip in a song apiece and in doing so illustrate that as writers they also possess a knack for coming up with strong vocal hooks and melodies that don't ever overshadow the instrumental arrangements. Regarding the latter area, Another Happy Ending sports a trio of string-sweetened songs, and the orchestral move is anything but gratuitous or self-serving. Of those three tunes, Blasey's "Hey You" best illustrates the band clicking on all cylinders, with a solid pop-rock foundation, tasty and distinctive electric guitar textures, scenic lyrics as well as economical and digestible performances from each member.

Understatement has been a constant with The Clarks; it's as though "less is more" has been branded on every instrument they've played since Day One. Tom Petty's Heartbreakers and Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band subscribe to the same ego-free theory, putting what's right for the song above all else. Moreover, Another Happy Ending illustrates that The Clarks have four capable, crafty tunesmiths. In contrast, there are numerous contemporary bands mining similar musical territory that are fortunate to have one competent songwriter who is able to pen half a good album.

The Clarks have performed enough gigs at the popular Pittsburgh watering hole Nick's Fat City to warrant the members' handprints in cement outside of the club. A star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame is an entirely different matter — first the band needs to break nationally, and Another Happy Ending gives The Clarks their best chance to date of doing so.

— Chris M. Junior (chrisjr@mindspring.com)