Jad Fair goes over the artistic edge with “NOW,” his one-song contribution to Joyful Noise’s monthly Flexi Disc series. Fair has gone so far that he’s the yodeling minstrel meeting his untimely end on “The Price is Right.” (Yodel-ye-yo-ho!) “NOW” is a spoken poem, with little attention paid to the rubric tribal beat that plays like a children’s marching band behind Fair’s Lou Reed intonation. Equal parts cool and oddball, “NOW” is the sort of pumped-up self-help jargon overheard from the homeless, those who have more insight into the hardships of daily life than most of us will ever know. Despite the strange balance between childlike exuberance and Raymond Babbitt mantra, “NOW” resonates well beyond its means. It somehow keeps finding its way back onto the turntable, even if it’s missing the same drama and punch of Fair’s recent full-length with Hifiklub and kptmichigan.
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