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There is much about “Puddles and Water,” the new one from Dave Clark that chimes with the usual singer-songwriter traditions, but then there are plenty of other sonic touches that he adds to the song that really doesn’t. And that makes you stop and listen more intently to his work, that blend of the fresh and familiar, that playoff between the tried and tested and the boundary-pushing.
Sure, out of his acoustic guitar, he pulls delicate chimes, shimmering chords, spaciousness, and spiraling riffs, but these he seems to set to a restless, relentless, looping rhythm that acts to keep things tumbling forward in a beautifully odd and oddly beautiful sort of way.
Then there are the strange sonics, everything from dripping water to futuristic electronica to clattering, almost industrial, beats that transform this from what might have otherwise been a straightforward acoustic folk-pop delivery into something much more mercurial, magical even.
Lyrically, Dave Clark has a wonderfully quirky quality. He blends observational imagery of the minutiae of life with big philosophical questions, proving himself to be a juggler of simple thoughts while simultaneously rethinking his life and its impact on the world around him.
The art of playing the singer-songwriter role is to stand out from seemingly ubiquitous mass of other players who have run roughshod over the music scene in recent years. “Puddles and Water” is the sound of an artist standing out.
