Private Eleanor (MySpace) Sweethearting The Beechfields Genre: Acoustic / Pop Best Element: Impeccable lyricism and well-produced songs that tell a story.

Private Eleanor’s full-length album, “Sweethearting,” is their latest offering on The Beechfields label. “Sweethearting” is composed of lyrics that build verses; verses that form songs; songs that blend into a story of ennui and wanderlust, of love and love lost, of uncertainty of place, of road-signs and desire, of yellow lines and redemption. It seems as though these songs could trickle down your passenger-side window on a long car ride; as though they were written to be the soundtrack for a rainy day spent with old photographs. I loved “Sweethearting’s” ambitious, and ultimately successful, attempt at weaving a world within an acoustic-pop wrapping.

At times the music itself seems the vehicle for the words; perhaps to be even the backseat driver for them. Although rife with precise numbers and exceedingly well-produced, there wasn’t a stand-out song on “Sweethearting;” no hit-single, no college-radio dark-horse lurking deep in the pack. They sound a bit like Denison Witmer at times, minus the notable singles. Oddly enough, this doesn’t detract from the album, if you consider how it’s set up. “Sweethearting” is Private Eleanor constructing a story. In fact, the liner notes state, just prior to listing the lyrics, “This is a story, and these are the words.” Their acoustic amalgam of coffee-shop sound hardly reinvents acoustic pop; instead it reshapes the point of an album. Private Eleanor is a cut above, though, as their storytelling and attention to detail on this album reflect a maturity of sound and song-crafting.

The songs range, in terms of lyrical approach, from passing recollections and thoughts on the content of dreams (“Weeds”), to a monologue/travelogue ticking off landmarks and names of streets (“Down Waterview”). “Down Waterview” approaches a story through these road-names and references to maps and traffic troubles. “They’re ripping up the parkway again,” the protagonist laments, “No one can pass. I check the maps for a way through.” The second verse concludes that “Only so many roads into this place; even fewer lead out—that’s why we all get stuck here.” And the third completes the thoughts, revealing the lamenter’s true worry. “If I can find some new scenery,” he rationalizes, “something for you to see, it might keep you here with me another year or two.” It’s a stark realization of entrapment and the associated fear that love might slip away any day.

The sparse “On Getting There” borders on being a longish, musical epigram. “Hey you, with your eyes all aglow,” it invokes, “you’ll do fine. If you knew everything I know at twenty-nine, you’d be going out tonight.” The second verse is an encouragement to those who keep fighting, saying “Hey you, with your eyes on the prize: you’ll get there.” It is hopeful without being overly sentimental; a patient reminder.

If there were a single on “Sweethearting,” it would be the lyrical anthem “This Year I’m Going to See the Sun.” It day dreamingly remarks on the things the writer’s forgotten: “how the cars line up this early in the day, end to end down 83,” and “how the light looks when the sun’s this low in the sky.” Then wakes with regrets: “I’ve spent my mornings sleeping,” and “It’s funny how much time we spend avoiding doing what we love.” It concludes “This year we’re going to rise. We’re going to see the sun.”

Their absolute hope in spite of creeping despair, loneliness, loss and boredom is refreshing, and their songwriting is precise and poetic. Private Eleanor—not to mention The Beechfields label—scores another solid album with “Sweethearting.”

Timothy C. Avery
July/August 2007