With After The Party, Leslie Mendelson refuses to repeat herself. Her fourth full-length album is a natural extension of her two prior Royal Potato Family records: the barebones Love And Murder of 2017 and the only slightly less skeletal work three years later, If You Can’t Say Anything Nice…
And yet Mendelson’s depiction of her increasingly distinct artistic persona, in the context of otherwise archetypal folk-rock stylings, may not be her greatest accomplishment with this project. She is neither overmatched nor overshadowed by the company she kept in recording sessions conducted at mentor Jackson Browne’s Grove Masters studio.
Produced by Peter Asher–who has worked in a similar capacity with James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, and Bonnie Raitt–in conjunction with Mendelson’s longtime songwriting partner, Steve McEwan, the work included additional supervision from Tyler Chester on three cuts, his participation in the wake of efforts on behalf of Sara Bareilles and Sara Watkins.
And if that personnel wasn’t prestigious enough, consider Leslie’s accompanists, including, but not limited to, guitarist Waddy Wachtel, bassist Leland Sklar, and drummer Jim Keltner. Not coincidentally, all three have marshaled forces behind the aforementioned poet-laureate of California folk-rock at one time or another, but that’s less a factor than the understated, sympathetic musicianship for which each has earned a deserved reputation.
Still, these collaborations are hardly the stuff of mere expedience. Nor do they serve just as the means to revisit well-established singer/songwriter modes. After The Party transcends genre in painting a portrait of a sly and slightly prickly individual not averse to speaking her mind outright but capable of a readily discernible level of nuanced expression as well. For instance, the airy tones of Leslie’s voice belie the steely resolve within “Have A Little Heart.”
Contrasts deepen even further with “Other Girls.” An atmospheric quasi-jazz intro gives way to a set of wry lyrics delivered in a knowing tone of voice from the distaff Brooklynite. Mendelson’s singing there cuts to the quick, in much the same way as the guitars that render supremely logical the track’s juxtaposition with “Rock and Roll on the Radio.”
But it’s not as if Leslie Mendelson’s succumbing to nostalgia there. Instead, she’s proffering a declaration of discerning personal taste right in line with her acid quote of the late Warren Zevon on this title song: ‘I’ll sleep when I’m dead!” Layers of guitars moving at a deliberate tempo there symbolize the litany of mixed feelings that suffuse a confessional, transcending the emotions of a single individual and hinting at a generational restlessness.
Epiphany in song, that composition is an emotional adventure no less heartfelt than Mendelson’s encouragement in so stalwart a manner during “The Good Life.” Wholly in keeping with the author’s clarity of mind, the sparse playing graphically outlines the core sentiment, thus warding off the melodrama conjured by some instrumental swells that rise and threaten to overwhelm (but never do).
Captivating but nonetheless mysterious, “Signs of Life” isn’t much less arresting. And the effect is all the more palpable because the cut sustains a nebulous mood that might dissipate in the hands (and hearts) of lesser artists. Co-composer McEwan plays an unsettling flurry of electric guitar notes there, but those sounds are hardly less disturbing than the synths Chester adds to “My Own Worst Enemy;” such fillips mirror the traces of self-doubt in the vocals as the phrasing contrasts the forthright lyrics (thankfully included in their entirety here on a folded insert).
With its high-stepping rhythm topped off by Wachtel’s reckless electric guitar, “I Gotta Go” is ideally placed in this ten-track sequence. It balances the quiet equanimity of this closer, “I Know a Lot of People”—highlighted by John Jorganson’s lap steel—but it also signals Leslie Mendelson’s worldly but hardly self-satisfied attitude that permeates After The Party.
