The feat of balancing multiple singers and/or songwriters in the same band is an uncommon one. An obvious nod must go to the Beatles, who balanced two gigantically important songwriters and singers as well a third unique voice. (I love “Octopus’s Garden” and all, but Ringo was never the consummate songwriter that McCartney, Lennon, and Harrison were.)
But the trickiness of the feat is not in mere possession; it’s the balancing that’s difficult. The magic of the Beatles is that the sequencing of their albums never sounds wrong and never belies a kind of accidental luck. One track seamlessly blends into the next with a kind of otherworldliness, one you’ve considered that multiple minds are at work.
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These bands are rare. Not so rare are the bands that can’t balance different singers or writers. A favorite example of mine is the Goo Goo Dolls.
The Goo Goo Dolls feature a poppier, more central songwriter, John Rzeznik, and a scrappier counterpart, Robby Takac. However sad it sounds, Takac is the lead singer that no one really cares for. No disc jockeys praise his composition, no girls swoon over him. And although I’m being pretty subjective in my estimations of poor Takac, it certainly says something that out of the eight Goo Goo Dolls songs to reach the Billboard Top 40, not one of them was written by Takac.
The usual progression is that the weaker writer’s/singer’s songs are gradually winnowed out album to album until none are left at all. (This may, in fact, be happening to Takac—only two songs were featured on the Dolls’ last outing.) But what about when you have a band like the Beatles—two strong voices contributing to a distinct, singular entity—and then this “winnowing” happens such that only one is left? It comes across as some sort of awful regression; not at all like the progressive act of weeding out Takac. (Sorry, Robby.)
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There is a legion of possible reasons for why Adam Gardner no longer sings lead for Guster, but I can’t help but observe that it seems awfully weird. Early on in Guster’s career, Gardner and Miller were clearly a point-counterpoint kind of deal as singers—listen to the alternating vocal lines in songs like “Happier” and “What You Wish For” and tell me that’s not a given.
So where has he been?
Gardner, as it turns out, is no songwriter. That settles some of the dispute. No figurative (read: songwriting) “voice” is being silenced when I don’t hear him singing lead on the last two albums. Miller is simply keeping his own songs for himself. In an interview with The Knickerbocker Ledger, Miller said:
“I definitely write most of the lyrics, but our song writing is very collaborative. It wouldn’t be totally fair to say that I’m the primary songwriter. Because I’m the lead singer, a lot of the words are mine and a lot of the vocal melodies are mine, but every song is different. Some I’ve written completely by myself with no input and some have been us sitting in a room together for months trying to figure it out.”
The last Guster album, Easy Wonderful, featured Miller singing lead on every song; Garnder appeared only during the choruses and harmony lines. The danger Guster stumbles upon is a lingering sameness between tracks. Past albums had a startling variety as two different voices traded choruses and songs. Personally, I’d be hard-pressed to admit any track on that latest album as superior to some of the Gardner-led songs from earlier Guster.
Maybe this is just me? You decide. Links below.
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Guster now:
Guster with Gardner:
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