At first I was skeptical when I heard that Michael Cera released an album. It seemed to me that he simply joined the other countless celebrities trying their hand at a music career because of their previous success on the big screen. However, after listening to it, I realized that it was far from a celebrity’s pathetic plea for attention.
The album, “true that,” was released exclusively online after Cera’s friend and fellow actor, Jonah Hill, persuaded him to release it. Cera never intended to release it, since it was just him and his friends playing music at home, but it sounds amazing. The whole album sounds so genuine and intimate. The music fits into the Lo-Fi Folk genre, which stands for low fidelity folk music. Low fidelity means the audio recording has a lower quality than usual, but in no way does it hinder this album. I felt as though I was in the room with him and his friends as they performed, the quality of the audio grainy and making it sound so real and close.
The album consists of 21 tracks, most of which include instrumental but some include soft, whispering vocals that linger in between each strum of an off key guitar. One of the instrumental tracks includes “Moving In,” which consists solely of an untuned piano, strangely reminiscent of the Violent Femmes in the sense that it proves untuned and off key instruments can sound good. It effortlessly integrates off key notes in the midst of the others which disrupts the flow beautifully. The other tracks containing vocals hold a comforting essence of folk music that sounds vaguely like something sung bittersweetly on a porch in the depths of the country. The whole album successfully radiates an essence of haunting melancholy and possesses the perfect blend of reflectiveness and heartache.
This album contains so much emotion and honesty, something which most albums lack these days. To me, artists and their work lose authenticity when performing solely for their audience, their overall purpose and views obscured by the strive to appeal to their fans. Michael Cera, however, performs naturally and doesn’t seem to be trying to impress others. He simply performs for himself and those who he plays with. “true that” sets an example of what it means to perform with emotion, what it means to fearlessly experiment and what it means to incorporate one’s soul into one’s music.
