When “Scrubs” star Zach Braff deemed Joshua Radin the new Paul Simon, you knew Radin’s career was going places. For gentle-voiced talent Radin, the praise is fortunately well-deserved and has led to his music’s ubiquity all over the small screen, from “Bones” to “One Tree Hill.” With four studio albums and a single, “I’d Rather Be With You,” which charted on both sides of the Atlantic, Radin already had a hefty resume before he recorded “Wax Wings,” his first self-released album. Despite that he now has his own label, this newest collection of songs is not a drastic departure from his previous work, as all 11 songs — with Radin’s breathy tenor and effervescent acoustic melodies — are still perfect material for television soundtracks.
Ironically, the very title of the album symbolizes boldness and ambition, as it alludes to Daedalus and Icarus, mythological figures who escaped imprisonment by flying away with wings made of wax and feathers. “Like They Used To” contains the eponymous phrase: “I had wax wings and I flew close to you/ Now I’m falling,” juxtaposing Radin’s escape from larger labels with Icarus’s audacity in flying toward the sun. Instead, Radin actually follows the path of Daedalus, who found safety and security without expending unnecessary dauntlessness, as “Wings” continues the stable conventionality of 2008’s successful “Simple Times.”
Which is not to say that Radin’s latest album is stale. On the contrary, “Wings” is mostly filled with winsome, refreshing (albeit occasionally repetitious, sonically and lyrically) tunes, just as “Simple Times” did. The jaunty guitar picking on the album’s opener “Beautiful Day” seems to echo the melodies of Jack Johnson, but its quaint qualities differentiate it from other musicians’. In addition, lush orchestral production reigns supreme in the delicately composed and sung “Lovely Tonight,” which features fellow singer-songwriter Priscilla Ahn, whose soft vocals perfectly complement Radin’s own on this track.
Though a new album and a new record label don’t signify any large musical digressions for Radin, one couldn’t imagine the artist doing anything other than maintaining the sound of his previous work. Few artists can pull that off successfully without sounding overdone. It seems like Braff’s taste in music is pretty trustworthy.
