Former Mineral and The Gloria Record frontman Chris Simpson goes alt-country in his new solo project as Zookeeper, Becoming All Things. After serving as an emo forerunner in the late 1990’s band Mineral, and as more mainstream alt-rock with The Gloria Record in the first half of this decade, the Austin native explores a world-weary honky-tonk on his first album as Zookeeper (with a backing band that includes The Gloria Record’s Ben Houtman on keys and Bishop Allen’s Cully Symington on drums). Becoming All Things shows an experienced hand feeling his oats, but does suffer when tracks drag on too long.
The core of Becoming is a stretched, slow sound that, at its best, is both evocative and powerful. This comes out finest early on, in the more pop-friendly “Trumpets” and the more epic “Boy and The Street Choir”. However, these tracks, at 6:02 and 7:02 respectively, also signal this sound’s main flaw: the pieces are simply too long. Later songs, like the back-to-back “On High” and title number, run even longer (7:22 and 7:34, respectively). The ten-track album runs at almost an hour, and, if one doesn’t count the barely-a-minute-long funk-ish instrumental “Al Kooper’s Party Horn”, each track averages out at just under 5:45.
The average comes in at under six minutes thanks to the honky-tonk good times of Becoming’s other side. Nowhere is this better done that at the start, with the laid-back fun of “Snow In Berlin”. The trumpets bring up a saloon-stomp on “Ballad of My Friends”, while the shambling-but-together “Everyone’s A DJ” brings to mind the clever wryness of Radiohead’s “Everyone Can Play Guitar”. Finisher “Born With Things To Do” really sums up the record, mixing its slow stretch and honky-tonk.
After being different things to different people with Mineral and The Gloria Band, Chris Simpson is becoming what he wants to as Zookeeper. On Becoming All Things, he shows his soul, and he shows his smile, with a down-home folk groove. He may put it out there too long, but he is out there.
