Before I say anything else, for writing and recording each of these songs in the span of just one day, the tunes on 28 Days of Fun are surprisingly well-written. That's no dig at Berkley - as a musician myself, I know how often writer's block can strike, and what's more, I know the pain of being stuck on a single song or a single lyric for months and just never finding the right closure. Sure, some of the songs here made me chuckle (they mostly consist of voicemails layered overtop of funeral dirges (see track 4) or those hilarious keyboard settings on that $40 Casio that everyone seems to own (see track 15)), but for the most part, Berkley's tunes are beautiful, lo-fi jams. It is acoustic-folk along the lines of Fleet Foxes or Bright Eyes, with a bit of Stephen Malkmus' attitude peppered in along the way.
Day one yielded the song "Do No Harm," which shows off Berkley's chops pretty quickly - acoustic chord as a skeleton, Berkley's quirky delivery, falsetto oohs and ahhs, and a number of auxiliary instruments including electric guitar and harmonica. Part of the charm of this particular offering is how flippant some of these songs seem, which is not to say that Berkley's songs don't seem well-written. Day two yielded "To The Tee," which is a beautiful song on it's own, featuring a carefree guitar line followed by a very pleasant piano riff. It's these little flourishes that catch your ear throughout 28 Days of Fun.
Most of 28 Days of Fun is great, but we are occasionally treated with gems like the stripped-down "Your Patience (Day 5)." Through listening to this album, I found that Berkley has the musical intelligence to incorporate a number of instruments into his tunes, but he is most successful when he embraces the inner minimalist on his folkier numbers. Same goes for "Lake Erie (Day 19)." Throw on a bit more reverb and crank up Berkley's falsetto and you have a bona fide Bon Iver song... Well, if Bon Iver was from WNY. I did quite enjoy the line, "I'd look out the window and pretend it's the nineties, when Billy Corgan still had hair." (Edit: this is when I realized that Mellon Collie was 28 songs long, it's like Berkley was trying to tell me something.)
There are moments when Berkley steps away from the folk/bluegrass model and gets away with it. "No Matter (By Laneshift, ca. 1995) (Day 3)" is a straight up Pavement song from '95 (If Laneshift was a real band, somebody please tell me). Opening up with some Cranberries-esque chorus and filling out the sound with a bit of fuzzed-out guitar, this song stands out on 28 Days of Fun as a welcome outlier. Speaking of Stephen Malkmus, "Sleepwalkin' Monsters (Day 6)" has that "I don't give a f***" waver-y vocal delivery that makes Malkmus so hip. And let's not forget the short and sweet "Breathing Down My Neck (Day 18)" with its keyboard-generated drums.
Berkley makes some interesting, but respectable calls - "The Brick Wall (Day 17)" is a really cool, ambient instrumental track... and then he busts in with a strong lead from a recorder. You remember that thing from like 3rd grade that everyone had to learn "Hot Cross Buns" on? I can't tell if I think that's incredible or just, well, kind of odd, but at the very least, Berkley had the balls to do it. On Berkley's other instrumental, "Brucey's Big Adventure (Day 9)," he goes a little more straightforward with the acoustic guitar and accordion(?). Either way, it's just a pretty song.
Berkley wrote a bunch more worthwhile stuff over the month of February, including the beautiful "Maps and Maplessness (Day 24)," but with such an impressive undertaking, I kind of wish that I also had 28 days to digest 28 Days of Fun. But regardless of all that, when you consider that he only gave himself a day to write and record each of these songs, you come to the realization that Alex Berkley has pretty much nailed it. 'Nuff said.
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