IRT Magazine

MICHAEL PENN

Palms & Runes, Tarot & Tea: A Michael Penn Collection (RCA/Epic/Legacy)

Mr. Hollywood Jr., 1947 (Mimeograph/spinART/Legacy)

Michael Penn is known as many things to many people. To some, he is the guy who sang that song “Romeo In Black Jeans” (sic). To others, he is the oldest Penn brother, firstborn of his actor brothers Sean and the late, great Christopher, who played Nice Guy Eddie in Reservoir Dogs. To her hardcore fans, he is known as Mr. Aimee Mann, loving husband and touring partner to the grand dame of alternative pop. To us here at the IRT, however, Michael Penn is considered to be one of the five most underrated singer-songwriters in American rock whose body of work deserves ample recognition far beyond that of his aforementioned 1989 radio and MTV smash “No Myth”. And based on this respectable new career retrospective brought to you by the folks at Sony Legacy, one can understand why Mr. Penn has been filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson’s go-to guy in the music department over the last 10 years, be it to score his film debut Hard Eight or to make a cameo as a studio engineer suffering through Dirk Diggler’s horrific cover of Stan Bush’s Transformers anthem “You Got The Touch”. Palms & Runes gathers 20 of Penn’s finest moments in song, including the great “Brave New World” from 1992’s Free-For-All, alternate takes of “Try” from 1997’s Resigned and “Lucky One” from 2000’s fairly better MP4: Days Since a Lost Time Accident.  One can argue, however, as to why the producers of this collection failed to include some of Penn’s best songs, including “This and That”, the equally catchy follow-up single to “No Myth” off the March album, or “Seen The Doctor”, the rockin’ first single off Free-For-All, especially in favor of a tepid rework of “Long Way Down (Look What The Cat Drug In)” and a weak demo outtake of “Me Around” from Resigned.  For those of you who really want to sink their teeth into the world of Michael Penn, however, one would be wise to check out his sadly overlooked 2005 concept album about post-WWII Los Angeles, Mr. Hollywood Jr., 1947, also reissued by Legacy with a bonus disc featuring six tracks recorded live at KCRW.  One cannot hear the album’s opening song “Walter Reed” and not think of the downtrodden military hospital’s recent controversial shine in the national spotlight, while tracks like “The Transistor” and “The Television Set Waltz” successfully evoke the Capra-esque feel Penn was shooting for with this great song cycle, arguably his best full album since March.  Here’s hoping that come the next time we hear of Michael Penn, he, Aimee Mann and Jon Brion will have conspired another classic score to a new Paul Thomas Anderson film that will finally make people stand up and give this man the recognition he so richly deserves. -Patch Atomz

Last Modified : April 25th, 2007
Filed under : reviews
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