Music for Tourists专辑介绍
歌曲的伴奏主要以钢琴为主，甚至常常一首歌曲只有钢琴在游走，从琴键中带出他独特的嗓音，背景的和声也恰到好处。虽然简单，不过就在简单之中，给了听众最直接最简洁的触动。他在钢琴，大提琴的简单伴奏下，低沉吟唱着, 仔细的体会他的歌词他的旋律还是有很大的不同。细腻的嗓音在优美却悲伤的曲调中透出淡淡忧郁，却让人遇见了希望。
Chris不喜欢呻吟，更多的是在平淡的描绘他的情感，细腻的，小心翼翼的。无论是年龄多大的人，都可以用Chris的歌声使感情巩固抑或回忆往日的甜蜜，寻找属于自己的幸福。E ·B·怀特在随笔中写到过纽约，说那些将纽约作为终极目的地的人造就了这座城市的敏感和诗意。Chris Garneau便是个这样的人。他的首张专辑《Music For Tourists》在07年1月发行。Chris的音乐受到Cat Power的影响；在他的myspace的"我最爱的敌人们"列表中，Regina Spektor赫然在列，专辑中的《Black & Blue》中甚至用了Regina的《Samson》中的一部分钢琴配乐；而隐藏轨的那首《Between the Bars》则是对Elliot Smith的致敬，配器换做钢琴的这支歌在他的哼唱中少了些许悲伤，生出一丝独自玩味的寂寞感。 在歌曲《Relief》的音乐录影带中，Chris扮作服务生随镜头在餐馆中穿梭。冷色调的美国寻常小餐馆，神情寥落而疲惫的各色人等落座其中。城市中人们的疏离和冷漠遍布他的音乐。有人说他的这张唱片堪比Damien Rice的《O》。可是在纽约的冬季街头和都柏林的秋日海岸，这两个同样在高处微微颤抖的声音却是在诉说着不同的心情。
The novelty of the sensitive male alto wore off long ago; yes, the idea of the doe-eyed boy who sings of love in all its forms, when done well, can still certainly hold a great deal of appeal, but when it seems formulaic and forced, it's wholly forgettable. While Chris Garneau, the slight, piano-playing singer/songwriter with the high, breathy voice, is not an untalented musician, he unfortunately does little to set himself apart from the rest of the cadre. In fact, the most notable thing about him may be how relatively straightforward his music is. Produced by none other than Duncan Sheik, Garneau's debut, Music for Tourists, is composed of slow piano-and-string indie ballads that, though they occasionally threaten to turn into something powerful, more often stay with the same barely breathing, minor-keyed, quarter-noted chord progressions that stick and falter in their own reflection like dull scissors cutting through contact paper. Garneau does periodically employ a kind of super-syncopated and super-enunciated twee phrasing, like in "Castle Time," when he sings, "My teacher died/Even the frying pan cried," that distinguishes him and his über-preciousness and gives him some individual character, but this is more bothersome and affected than endearing. The few moments where passion overtakes him and his voice drops and fills out, like in "Sad News" or "Relief," are more honest and bare than anytime Garneau sings sorrowfully "I'm sorry he brought us there/Me, crying in my underwear," and give a welcome glimpse of the person behind the sometimes-corny, sometimes-insightful lyrics (the rather inane "I love the way you dance.../Don't you miss your chance" coupled with the brilliant "I didn't go to see the city/I went to see it around you" in "Relief"). But too much of the album gets caught in the shallow grave of introspection, struggling half-heartedly to pull itself out, already resigned to unremarkable misery, just like everyone else. Perhaps the most telling moment of this in on the bonus track, a cover of Elliott Smith's "Behind the Bars." Where Smith was able to convey very real-sounding and often subtle layers of despair in his voice, Garneau just seems like he's trying to be fragile, barely reaching the high notes and affecting an almost-Irish accent on some of the vowels, simply because that's what he thinks he's supposed to do. He's suffering from a lack of presence, if anything, which makes Music for Tourists, with all its bright spots, a cumbersome affair.