The fact that this album opens with a song that sounds like a half-forgotten West Coast (a clue in the name, perhaps?) mainstream hit from the summer of ’74 speaks volumes about the songwriting chops and musicianship found on this album. The fact that this is just one of an array of shifting sounds and styles, often seeming to pay homage to various golden ages and moments of excellence along the way, tells us that this is an imaginative, not to mention tasteful, songwriter indeed.
Beyond ‘What A Fool’s’ welcoming intro, we find ourselves on a sedate rollercoaster ride (if there can be such a thing) of the lush and the lovely, the energetic and the truly exciting. ‘Keep the Lights On’ is gently funky and blissfully soulful, and ‘Run Back’ proves that Alexander Dausch, the man behind the moniker, is happy to add drive to this delicious deftness.
And if those three opening songs describe the musical spectrum, to a certain degree, within this sonic shape, he manages to create so much, and run a cool and varied gamut. ‘Emily’ perhaps is a bit of an outlier, but then Dausch seems unconcerned about listener expectations (which is as it should be) as this 90’s heyday of college/alt-rock – infused piece shows.
‘Damned’ is a gorgeous balladic blend of folk-finesse and pop acumen; ‘The Way You Look at Me’ is aquatic-sounding, intimate, a liquid whisper in the ear; and the title track rounds things off in a fine, drifty, dreamy style.
At 18 songs, it is a long album, but anyone who can keep you totally engaged over one and a quarter hours is a songwriter that you need to keep an eye on. Or do I mean ear? You know what I mean?
