“Thought I had it all figured out, I confess, but God only laughed,” sings LA troubador and road warrior David Kaufman in “I Made God Laugh,” the poppy opening track of his seventh and latest album, “Scratch.”
The record is what a psychiatric professional might call “superficially bright,” as the songs are masterfully tuneful and delivered in the voice of a songwriter who wears many hats as a working Hollywood musician, including the crowd-pleasin’ visiting entertainer at dozens of assisted living and memory centers around Southern California and extroverted member of a handful of tribute bands covering early rock-n-roll, British Invasion, and AM Radio Gold acts.
(“I’ve got about 500 songs memorized,” Kaufman says, ready to pull out a Frank Sinatra, Buddy Holly, Kinks, or Cat Stevens tune, depending on the gig, at some rest home or state fair somewhere. “But the ‘oldies’ keep getting more recent—you might not expect to get asked to do a Tom Petty song at a nursing home, yet that’s been happening lately…”)
Kaufman wrote many of the songs on “Scratch” in heartbreak (“She had a funny way of spelling ‘Relationship: P-A-I-N”), so these often poignant lyrics get delivered within a Donovan/Beatles-inspired framework that sounds like amiable Sir Paul doing his best to channel Cold Turkey-era John. But Kaufman isn’t in Strawberry Fields or Penny Lane or Atlantis—he’s got some girl trouble.
In the lush “The Little Things,” referring to the rechewed minutiae of a relationship that has ended, we think Kaufman is going to segue into “Hurdy Gurdy Man.” But that’s not to say the melodies are derivative. A listener can appreciate the themes and lyrics of “Scratch” the way they’d like “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?” by Oasis or World Party’s “Goodbye, Jumbo,” thinking, “George Martin is smiling somewhere.”
Every song on “Scratch” isn’t about romantic bereavement, though. The ambitious “Be the Candle” and “Rhapsody in Green” are social justice and environmental anthems, arriving after a pair of pieces (“Part of My Life” and “Weakness”) that suggest relationships that are still extant. We hope they last!
“Scratch” is irresistible and mature power pop, sitting like a plush therapist’s couch in Pepperland.
David Kaufman
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