Spring, 2003
Review: Legends of the Super Heroes
Luke Torn, Pop Culture Press, Issue 56

Proving that the singer/songwriter game isn't all blue and melancholy, Austinite Beaver Nelson dares to tempt the angry young man cliche with an album of good-natured fun. Legends of the Super Heroes is Nelson's fourth album in the last five years, after nearly a decade of unreleased albums and aborted projects for a series of record labels. While Nelson's clearly a gifted songwriter, he's steadfastly avoided the pigeon-holing critics are infamous for. And good for him! Taking a page from Dylan's great Basement Tapes, Nelson hams it up with loopy tunes like "Baloney Bay" (which sports a skittering trumpet and trombone combo) and the playful social commentary of "Government-Santioned Hayride," songs that on their surface appear absurd, but really make their own kind of internal logic. Beneath the good times and strange times you find a king of (subtle) quest—a quest for meaning, a quest for happiness, a quest for purpose. And when the search for meaning clashes with Nelson's devastating penchant for providing a clear, concise, simple hook, as on the dreamy "Digging a Well" and, especially, "Anything Easy Left," Beaver Nelson is the best damn songwriter working today. (Here's where you insert the 'I'll stand on Steve Earle's [or Conner Oberst's or Anders Parker's or whoever's] coffee table and say that line.)