If the Ocean

Willy MasonIf the Ocean Gets Rough

Bob Dylan, Ryan Adams and Conor Oberst – three songwriters who were often cited as “old souls” early in their careers – all recorded their first “classic album” at age 22 (The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, Stranger’s Almanac and Lifted, respectively). Willy Mason, another “old soul” type, recorded his first classic, If the Ocean Gets Rough, at age 21; the problem being that almost no one in the U.S. paid any attention to it. Risky, you say, to mention such an unknown artist among the names of the gods of yesterday and today? Normally, yes, but not in the case of If the Ocean Gets Rough and William Mason, who now at age 22 seems poised to be everything Ben Kweller and Ben Lee were supposed to be.

At first glance Mason looks like a kid; not a 22-year-old kid, but a real deal, pimply-faced kid who just might still get an allowance. Look a little closer. Look at the album cover, the liner notes and the way he carries himself. Then read the words and listen to the voice. Listen to the arrangements. If no photos or bio information existed on Mason, the kid could easily pass for 30. Make that 40. Raised to be nothing more than a folk singer by two folk singer parents, Mason has music – more specifically a rare gift for economical, “old timey” songwriting – in his blood. On the organically produced folk/rock/pop hybrid Ocean, Mason displays a rare preternatural understanding of the possibilities of a three-minute song better middle-age-bound guys like Jakob Dylan and Rob Thomas have ever managed.

Okay, so maybe calling Mason’s new album a classic is a bit of a stretch, but it does have a handful of top shelf songs, and maybe the best Side A of the year. Opening with the anthem-ready “Gotta Keep Walking,” Mason shamelessly mixes portraits of meandering youth and idealism over his always mid-tempo, always untreated, always tight Americana-meets-pop accompaniments. The real jaw-dropper hits two songs later with “We Can Be Stong,” a sharply insightful tale about a youth dropping out of college, moving home and finding a way to “be strong” in the world’s shadow of disappointment. Plenty of songwriters have written about regret, disenchantment, failure and frustration, but rarely do you find someone able to write about an anticlimax with such grace and comprehension.

Following “We Can Be Stong” is “Save Myself,” a similar themed tale of redemption, though in the context of cultural criticism and ageism. “When the elders all are playing make believe / Save myself, I got to save myself / When they teach us lessongs that they don’t believe / Save myself, I got to save myself / When they build up statues but neglect their seeds,” sings Mason in his typically thick, mumbly and dusty drawl. The song – which utilizes a Ryan Adams-meets-The Beatles backdrop – perfectly paints the way any sensible, wandering 22-year-old should feel. Mad, sad and somehow hopeful.

Mason’s Ocean starts to teeter off following the wonderfully raucous “When the River Moves On,” leaving the last four songs as filler for what could’ve been a seven-song no filler EP. Actually, track 10, “The End of the Race,” is pretty stellar, too, just not when compared to Ocean’s powerhouse first seven tracks. While Mason surely doesn’t write with the natural poetic grace of a young Adams, the fiery, studied shtick of a young Oberst or the intellectual godliness of a young Dylan, his weathered-but-hopeful social observations are universally relatable and written with in an economical way that promises even better things to come. Simply, for ever one word this kid wastes, Dylan, Adams and Oberst waste 100.

Let’s not picture young Willy Mason visiting Dylan on his deathbed just yet … but, for what it’s worth, if it were to come to that in the next year or two (God forbid), Mason would easily be the most auspicious wunderkind for the job.   7.5/10

Written by G. William Locke