Finding depth in shallowness seems like an honorable ambition for a certain sort of pop musician, and The Autumn Defense reach this elusive goal in the first 30 seconds of their addictive new full-length release Once Around: "I took a trip to the back of my mind," they sing, "And I found there that nothing was mine." Like the rest of the record, album opener "Back of My Mind" demonstrates how a seemingly mild-mannered side project — in this case, a collaboration between two members of Wilco — can lovingly re-create a pop idiom and provide new thrills to boot, apart from the usual nostalgia.
Once Around marks the fourth record by The Autumn Defense, and the continuation of a musical partnership that began when Pat Sansone and John Stirratt lived in New Orleans in the early 1990s. A native of Meridian, Miss., Sansone found a kindred spirit in the New Orleans-born Stirratt. From a musical family (his father was a concert promoter in Meridian in the '70s), Sansone was already hooked on The Beatles and Big Star when he met Stirratt.
"Big Star was huge for me, and it was for John as well," Sansone says from his current home in Chicago. "Big Star's Third just blew my mind, because it was the perfect combination of the British, melodic pop sense and the odd, disjointed sort of Southern tone. That record is one of the reasons we connected."
Inspired by British-American pop of the late '60s — Sansone cites Love's Forever Changes and The Zombies' Odessey and Oracle as favorites — the duo began recording their own compositions. Their 2000 debut, The Green Hour, blended Bread, Big Star's #1 Record and Firefall for an expert exploration of the fuzzy intersection of country-rock and pop.
Much like similar efforts by such Nashville artists as Bill Lloyd, Brad Jones and The Shazam, The Autumn Defense's early records added Southern sensibility to the power-pop tradition. In fact, Sansone lived in Nashville for a time, and the duo has done a lot of recording in Music City.
"The majority of the music on our first three records was done in Nashville," Sansone says. "Half of The Green Hour was tracked in New Orleans, and I moved to Nashville in '99, in the middle of making it. We recorded the second half of it at [Brad Jones'] Alex the Great studio, with Brad on bass and Will Kimbrough playing some guitar."
Recorded in Chicago, Once Around may be The Autumn Defense's strongest collection to date. "Back of My Mind" features a shimmering, piano-driven arrangement and a guitar break that recalls George Harrison and Andrew Gold. "Every Day" plays like Gene Clark collaborating with Alex Chilton, complete with sophisticated chord changes.
Sansone and Stirratt are fierce formalists who devise minimalist arrangements to support songs that twist and turn in mild emotional distress. "The Swallows of London Town" skips along like a lost track by America, while "The Rift" features a pseudo-flamenco guitar figure worthy of Love's Da Capo.
Time travel has never seemed more attractive. Once Around is almost as good a record as Bread's 1969 self-titled debut, and features what may be the modern era's definitive answering-machine song. "I listen to your voice and I rewind it / 'Cause I don't ever want to let you go," they sing in "Tell Me What You Want." As a method of retrieving the past, it may be a little old-fashioned, but it works.
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