P.J. Olsson: Words For Living : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Houghton, Michigan, native P.J. Olsson's charming major-label debut is a slightly zonked-out variation of singer-songwriter rock laced with stoner whimsy and assorted techno, hip-hop and folkie textures. Comparisons with Beck seem inevitable, especially since Olsson worked with Beck's early collaborator Carl Stephenson on "Dandelion." What Olsson and Beck really share is free-flowing musicality and an offbeat lyrical stance that mixes naiveté and wit in intriguing, occasionally disconcerting ways. "What I need is to have a good dream," he sings on the opening track. "I want the opposite of Adolf Hitler." Or on "Thorazine": "Love is my Thorazine/Lithium hell and hand cream." But some of the most memorable tracks on Words for Living are the simplest and least self-consciously clever. "Ready for a Fall," a whispery love song straightforward enough to have been featured on Dawson's Creek, succeeds by just being gorgeous, as does "People" (no, it's not a Barbra Streisand cover). One hopes that Olsson will be making a fine "Living" soon. (RS 846)

DAVID WILD