Rhett Miller: The Believer (Verve Forecast)

Old 97’s fans might have trouble recognizing the carefully coiffed, meticulously put-together Rhett Miller gracing the cover of The Believer as the same bespectacled, slightly geeky guy pictured inside the Old 97’s fantastic break-out album Too Far To Care (Elektra, 1997). Probably the bid to transform Miller into a commercially viable heartthrob should have been obvious to anyone paying attention. He’s not bad looking, and his songs always betrayed him as an eternal—and sometimes infernal—romantic with sappy tendencies that were thoroughly indulged on his 2002 solo debut The Instigator (Elektra). So, this time around Miller has a stylist and groomer (really, check the liner notes), and while a guitar is featured prominently in the cover photos, he doesn’t actually play it on the record. All of this makes Miller an easy target for purists that rail against image over substance, but in order to write him off as just another pretty boy you’d have to overlook two important points. First, Miller is a damn good songwriter, an ace at creating pleasant melodies and memorable hooks. Second, there’s something about his voice that makes him eminently likable. If the slightest trace of sentimentality exists in you, Miller will find it and use his blatantly honest lyrics, and that voice, to exploit it. “Help Me, Suzanne,” “Singular Girl,” and “I’m With Her” are airy, almost too nice, love songs similar to “Hover” and “Four-Eyed Girl” from The Instigator, while “Meteor Shower” is lush, soaring orchestral pop, and “Fireflies” (a duet with Rachael Yamagata) is a classic he said/she said story of love gone wrong that one might well imagine George Jones and Tammy Wynette singing. “Ain’t That Strange” and “Delicate” are rockers with some glam influence and “Brand New Way” seems to cast Miller as a male counterpart to Aimee Mann, who co-wrote “I Believe She’s Lying,” The Believer’s best tune, with Jon Brion.