Josh Rouse

Country Mouse, City House

(Bedroom Classics)

Record Review by Adam McKibbin

Josh Rouse unleashes the fury of a thousand hells on Country Mouse, City House.  OK, maybe not so much.  While there’s no shortage of sensitive, heart-on-sleeve troubadours in the world, Rouse is an especially precious sort; he did the expatriate thing in Spain, he writes pretty love songs with his Spanish girlfriend (Paz Suay), and he’s pictured on the inside of Country Mouse happily in the midst of some sort of apparent home beautification project.  He’ll probably write a song about that, too.  And it will probably be a pretty good song.

Granted, not everything is roses and sunshine in Rouse’s musical world.  Among the peculiarly international problems he encounters:  a lover’s inability to keep herself away from Italians in expensive clothes and the French’s inability to appreciate his groove.  The former comes on “Italian Dry Ice,” a languid, breathy track with some jazzy accoutrements - easy on the ears, but not playing to Rouse’s full strengths.  His cheeky complaint about the French, though, comes on the presumably semi-autobiographical “Hollywood Bass Player,” a lively rocker with a sense of humor and a lot of texture.

Fret not, Brits - Rouse carries your country with him, too (“London Bridges”).  Whereas Fergie asked “How come every time you come around / My London London Bridge want to go down?”, Rouse doesn’t waste time with rhetorical questions:  “If you think that I am just a bridge, then I’ll be leaving now / This bridge is falling down.”  It’s pitch-perfect bittersweet pop with more earnestness and fewer rough edges than contemporaries like Ryan Adams (a distinction that is meant as neither a pro nor con).  Rouse then shifts down-tempo and closes with “Snowy,” a reflective track benefiting from yet another memorable guitar line and strong hook in the chorus.

On the opposite end, the lovely, twang-kissed opener “Sweetie” is an early valentine for Valentine’s Day mixmakers.  “I hope I can love you just like you deserve to be,” Rouse sings, then launches into a sing-songy chorus about riding bicycles and getting married.  And, yes, it’s one of the three songs co-written with Suay.  Eventually, words fail in the face of such hope and love, leaving them to simply sing “La la la la la la.”  Together, of course.