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Album Details

• Artist: Castle Project
• Album: Diaries of a Broken Heart
• Label: White Whale
• Year of Release: 2005
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: patchen on 2005-05-25

This has the feel of a Beatles solo record, which, if you take a minute to remember, isn't all that flattering. Like, say, Imagine, there is a confident pop sense and writing that is clever but direct. But, like maybe Mind Games, that pop sensibility gets tiresome and you wish a guitar would show up to relieve the monotony.
Ryan Ostiguy is Castle Project, playing all instruments, with just a bit of help on percussion, trumpet and cello here and there. This is his vision, which again isn't all that flattering when you consider that someone could have been around to challenge that vision. He certainly has balls, to devote a record to a broken relationship, and speak of it in terms that have been used over and over, here without much irony. It works sometimes, especially on beautiful tracks like "The Airways", "Away From It", and "How Does It Feel." But overall he could have used an editor.
Songs like "Celebrate the End", "Broken Glass", and "Hearts on the Door", from the titles on down, suffer from a preciousness that undermines the intent. This record would work if A) it displayed more of the variety of emotions one goes through when ending a relationship; B) if he had band-mates to challenge that preciousness, and C) if there was some sense that Ostiguy had learned more from the breakup than how to mope. Where is the resolve to move on? Hell, where is the deep, scarring emotion? This record tries to place itself with other personal breakup records like Afghan Whigs' Gentleman, and Elvis Costello's Blood & Chocolate, but comes up short. To announce that your record is so autobiographical and then deliver a carefully crafted pop confection is to be suspect. I'm not asking for Plastic Ono Band, but then again, I'm not asking for McCartney either.

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