Although Chicago-born, New York-based multi-instrumentalist
Bryan Scary did eventually form a full band called
Bryan Scary & the Shredding Tears, his debut album of that title is a one-man band operation (almost:
Apollo Sunshine's
Jeremy Black re-recorded the drums after
Scary was signed to the Black and Greene label) that has just the sort of hermetic, overstuffed quality that's endemic to one-man-band overdub extravaganzas recorded piecemeal over the course of several years. This isn't an insult, mind:
Roy Wood's
Boulders,
R. Stevie Moore's
Phonography, the recent work of
XTC's
Andy Partridge and many other minor pop classics have been recorded in similar circumstances, and echoes of all of the above can be found here. A florid chamber pop album with psychedelic and glam touches,
The Shredding Tears is filled with minor-key ballads prone to orchestral flourishes ("The Lesson I Learned" and the title track), weird bits of
Paul McCartney and sandbox-era
Brian Wilson melodies fed through a bank of vintage synthesizers ("Operaland," "The Little Engine That Couldn't"), trippy psychedelic playfulness (the tape loop-enhanced "The Up and Over Stairwell"), and songs that make plain
Scary's shocking vocal resemblance to
Squeeze's
Glenn Tilbrook (almost all of them, actually, but especially "Operaland" and "Macedonia Hotel").
Jellyfish and
Sparks are equally important names to drop here, though their influences are perhaps not quite so directly felt. Overall,
The Shredding Tears is the sort of album that suggests that
Bryan Scary has one heck of a record collection, but as clever and facile as the songs are, they still sound a bit too much like the bands that inspired them. True fans of the style can overlook
Scary's still-evolving songwriting and production ideas and enjoy the songs as smart and sometimes very funny pastiche, but it's not hard to wish for a bit more of
Scary's own personality on display here.