Henry's Child - Clearly Confused

As with most bands I write about, there's a story surrounding my initial experience with Henry's Child, which occurred at a nightclub in Everett, Washington several months ago. If you've never heard of Everett, don't worry; there's not much there, aside from a naval base and some slightly scary remnants of the 80s. (You don't want to know some of the pickup lines I've heard there.)

I was in Everett with my own band, Murder of Crows, on a night when the club had inordinately overbooked. After two sets by largely forgettable pop-metal bands, we were falling asleep where we sat when all of a sudden we were stirred awake by this band of incredibly nice guys from Eugene, OR: Henry's Child. Their second CD, Clearly Confused, was released last year, and is a definite improvement over their first effort, Mumbles and Screams, which is itself a strong recording.

One of Henry's Child's chief strengths is a vocalist who does something besides scream into the microphone. In the Pacific Northwest these days, too many bands seem to be returning to that laughable stereotype of rock and roll, where the singer has no talent and hollers incomprehensibly at an audience that can't hear him anyway over the shriek of feedback. The singer of Henry's Child, a man known as A Smith, actually sings, using his vocal abilities to good advantage (on "Lie Before" he occasionally manages to sound like Geoff Tate of Queensryche, a feat to which few mere mortals can aspire). And it's actually possible to understand the lyrics, although lyrics are helpfully included with the CD(one of my personal peeves is bands that are just too cool to include lyrics in their liner notes).

Henry's Child also exhibits a rhythmic strength that apparently took some time to get just right, as they seem to have changed drummers quite a bit. However, both at their two shows that I've had the honor of attending and on this album, they have a very strong rhythmic base that makes their music very enjoyable to listen to.

All of the tracks on this CD are strong, but there are some highlights. "Flicker," which is probably my favorite, is particularly well done, with an aggressive rhythm that perfectly suits the main point of the song and thought-provoking lyrics. "Simple Request," one of several songs dealing with betrayal and/or loss, does some interesting things with its backing vocal harmonies, which is always impressive to me (I'm a lousy singer). "What a Pity," another aggressive song, is especially memorable. And then there's the ssssssslinky cover of "Trust in Me" from The Jungle Book.

So what can one say in general about this band? While Rich Clinton (guitar), Thom Tessandori (bass), and Jeff Reilly (drums, since replaced by Doug Cramer) are more than competent, they never interfere with Smith's vocals, which is to be commended. (Especially these days, as the trend seems to be swinging back toward the musical acrobatics that predated grunge.) Their music is clever without sounding contrived, intelligent without the snobbishness that often accompanies intellectual rock, and varied while maintaining an identifiable sound: gentle ballads share recording time with heavy, forceful songs that remind one of Tool, or occasionally Metallica.

I could have done without the mini-hypnotherapy sessions that are interspersed between several tracks on the CD--fortunately, programmable CD players mean you don't have to listen to these if you don't want to--as I find that they distract from the music. The rest of this recording, though, is so enjoyable that this is really a minor complaint. Unless you live in or around Eugene (they rarely even make it to Seattle, though last time they were here, they played at the Sub-Zero), you probably won't have a chance to hear them live, but you can check out sound samples and other associated goodies at their website.