His music is early millennial emo and recent Plain White T's, a blend my good friend Joey likes to call "nice guy emo." Not angry or electric enough to be considered hard core, though not sappy enough either to become a succession of whiney lovesick ballads, Rozwod treads a middle ground, right down to the nasally, faux-British tinge to his voice (a favorite among punk's various descendants worldwide) that situates him in time, space and genre without falling overboard into self-mockery. While he does occasionally go straight-ahead, treading a path too-often taken (emo), there's enough hope to amount to nothing more than a single tear being shed. Sure, the lyrics from "Meant to Lose" ("This is where you give up / This is where you lose control / It's clear that you meant to lose"), represent a strength-through-adversity pose that's just as showy as sorrow to the point of suicide, but at least it's a different spectacle. Thank God, too, the whole wrist-slitting scene was becoming such a bore.
Of course, we wouldn't be having this discussion if Rozwod weren't a talented artist. His latest EP, The Inside, demonstrates that talent in five tracks of breathy, sprightly sad pop. "Meant to Lose" contains a killer hook and "Eyes Ahead" is a fairly well written treatise on giving up. The song "Showers" dabbles in electronica, Rozwod's voice fazing out in the last measure in that sort of up/down, robotic, hard-to-notate style so popular in the mid-1990s.
If you're looking for a little musical medicine to help heal a couple of sad pop inflicted wounds -- and really, who isn't -- a few teaspoons of My Anodyne might be enough to cure what slits you.
My Anodyne with Kristen Marlo and Isenheart at Leonardo's Coffee on Saturday, May 12 at 7 pm. $5. Call 464-4888.
