Album Review: Home Life by Andrew Cedermark

The surprisingly effective opening track of Home Life is a freewheeling cover of Bill Withers’ 1972 staple “Lean On Me.” Yet it is Cedermark’s streaking yowl that comes off leaning, reaching out in darkness for reverberating pine trunks in serious shades of Mangum. It’s a thought-provoking prelude to a record that, like its forerunner Moon Deluxe, feels like quite a personal effort from the former Titus Andronicus guitarist. Uninhibited and jubilant as it is fully realized, Cedermark might be sturdier than he lets on.

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Home Life is set in the places Andrew Cedermark has called home: his native New Jersey; Charlottesville, Virginia, where he went to university; and New York City. He sings about growing up and not growing up, making friends, not making friends, finding love, losing love - the type of stuff that could be trite and boring in less capable hands. Cedermark's intimate approach, however, cuts through any heart-on-sleeve songwriter clichés.

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The rigors of touring resulted in Andrew Cedermark amicably parting ways with Titus Andronicus, his second solo LP was recorded in a number of former and current domiciles, and it contains songs with titles such as “Tiller of Lawn” and “Heap of Trash”. But why would you want a document of a 27-year old settling into a domesticated existence-- it’s the literal sound of a chore, no? Fortunately, Cedermark plays up the existential and philosophical issues that make “home” one of the most powerful and commonplace concepts in pop music. Even the quaint abode on its cover allows you to project your fears and ambitions onto it.

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Andrew Cedermark probably listened to a lot of classic rock radio growing up. In his guitar work you can hear an amalgamation of the titans of pre-1980 American rock greats like Tom Petty and Bob Dylan. There are echoes of B.B. King blues and Dwight Yoakam country rock. Yet Home Life doesn’t ….

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Andrew Cedermark’s sophomore album Home Life, the follow-up to 2010’s Moon Deluxe, finds the ex-Titus Andronicus guitarist becoming a post-modern Holden Caulfield as he embarks on a search for his place in the world. Anchored in geography, the album is set in Charlottesville, VA, New York, and New Jersey and while it sounds as if the album’s narrative is about moving, it’s much more than that. Home Life explores Cedermark’s voyage towards finding home in the unknown journey of life.

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