The Littlest Man Band
Better Book Ends
Mean Street Magazine
This album follows singer Scott Klopfenstein on a journey through the
pangs and self-realizations of a break-up. Lyrically it’s all metaphor and
sad detail sung with a deadpan desperation and dropped into some piano
bar where the rest of the band kicks it along and blows it away with subtle
swaying horns (Klopfenstein and trombonist Dan Regan still do time
in Reel Big Fish). There’s nothing to skank to, but there are moments that
will please fans of Ben Folds, Brian Wilson and Harry Nillson. Grand
comparisons, no doubt, but this album arcs both musically and emotionally
into a happier place, a hard feat to pull off in real life and perhaps even
harder as a band. “Misery is a talent you can hone,” Klopfenstein sings on
“Better Man.” Better Book Ends is proof of that.
Grade: B+
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