CD Reviews

Theryl “Houseman” Declouet

The Truth Iz Out | Self-released

By BRETT MILANO | July 17, 2007

3.0 Stars

Former Galactic frontman Theryl “Houseman” DeClouet’s second solo disc is a break-up album, but not the kind you’d expect from someone who recently parted with his band of 15 years, since Galactic wrote the New-Orleans-funk-infused title track. Rather, it sounds as if the singer had been through some relationship trouble, or at least had been listening to a lot of later Marvin Gaye, since most of this set mines a deeper shade of soul. The title song finds him admitting he messed up and asking for forgiveness. The next, “Lord Knows I Tried,” suggests he didn’t get it. A late-night confessional feeling pervades the rest of the disc, even when the songs are nominally upbeat. The one vintage cover, Deon Jackson’s “Love Makes the World Go Round,” slows down the original’s chipper groove and upends the mood of the lyric; it’s sung from the outside looking in. The hymnlike “Brighter Day” (which mentions 9/11 but implies Katrina) continues the somber cast. The joky, semi-instrumental “I Love Myself” is the one lighthearted moment. You don’t need to ask what a song about self-gratification is doing on a break-up album.

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