Mister Romantic
What’s Not to Love?
ETERNAL MAGIC
What happens when a vanity project removes itself from vanity, from smugness and ego? At first, finding out that film and theater actor John C. Reilly had created a lonely vaudevillian character seemingly based on his doleful “Mister Cellophane” bit from the 2002 film musical Chicago, the prospects of another “Mister” looked like lean pickings—no matter how good of a stage presence the fuzzy-haired thespian portrays. Hearing the soft and tender contours of What’s Not to Love? immediately changes all that, as Reilly’s Mister Romantic unwraps each melody and lyric without irony or snarky dispatch.
Rather than move hammily through a selection of familiar Great American Songbook entries (and Tom Waits songs), Reilly found a set of gently impressionistic collaborators such as Davíd Garza and Sebastian Steinberg (the multi-instrumentalist and bassist, respectively, both play with Fiona Apple), country swing violinist Gabe Witcher, and whispery cornet and accordion player Charles De Castro (from Keb’ Mo’s band). Other than the natural theatricality of, say, Johnny Mercer’s melancholy songcraft on “Dream” and the ever-ascending chords from Eddy Arnold and Cindy Walker’s “You Don’t Know Me,” Reilly takes his vocals nice and easy, and with sharp, supple clarion emotion.
Certainly, Reilly-as-Romantic rises to the dramatic occasion of “The Song Is Ended (But the Melody Lingers On)” and the near-operatic “What’ll I Do?,” but beyond this emphasis, it’s a cushy, silken ride for the singer and his ensemble. The usual big-band grandeur of “Moonlight Serenade” is taken down to something intimate and bite-sized. The tremor of Reilly’s voice throughout “I’ll Be Seeing You” keeps pace with Garza’s Django-meets-Johnny-Smith guitar shimmer. De Castro’s muted silvery cornet wriggles ever so slightly in time with Reilly’s lonely pacing on the title track. Tom Waits’ loveliest-ever song “Johnsburg, Illinois” somehow becomes lovelier—teary, even—when Reilly and his band approach its handsome passion play.
Save for the brief sound effects and voicemail messages, Mister Romantic has produced a lean and gorgeous moment in league with Sinatra’s Only the Lonely when it comes to acting the part of forever-wounded lover.
