John Vanderslice - Dagger Beach '2013

Tracks list

Tracklist

01. Raw Wood
02. Harlequin Press
03. Song For Dana Lok
04. How the West Was Won
05. Interlude #1
06. Song for David Berman
07. Damage Control
08. Song for the Landlords of Tiny Telephone
09. Gaslight
10. Sleep It Off
11. Sonogram
12. North Coast Rep
13. Interlude #2

California popsmith John Vanderslice built his name on his ever-curious
songwriting and shape-shifting production with colorful and catchy solo albums
like Life and Death of an American Fourtracker and Cellar Door. Dagger Beach
follows Vanderslice's seemingly endless line of creative output, presenting
itself as an album inspired by the events following a breakup, but not a
"breakup album" per se. It's true that the themes here don't linger on
heartbreak or agony, but there's a certain still patience to the album that
comes from the somber reflection of an ending love. Recorded completely without
computers, there's a certain analog-centric emptiness to the album, but not in
the traditional sense of lo-fi recording or sophomoric first-take amateurism.
Instead, songs glow with an insular feeling not unlike Todd Rundgren's one-man
pop symphonies of the '70s or Elliott Smith's four-track demo cassettes turned
heart-rending classic albums. On the brilliant "Harlequin Press," Vanderslice
spells out a character-based failed-romance metaphor worthy of Blood on the
Tracks-era Dylan, all over spare and softly experimental beats, coasting flute
sections, and other fragmented pop segments. It's amazing that the elements work
so well together, but the weird approach to intertwining emotionally distant
lyrics and unconventional song structures becomes the unexpectedly strong
blueprint for much of Dagger Beach. The blown-out drum sound of "How the West
Was Won" threatens to bleed over onto Vanderslice's double-tracked vocals before
being kept at bay by tightly arranged guitar and Mellotron sections. As he
delivers lines like "Don't it feel good to be understood?," we get a sense that
Vanderslice isn't bitter as much as reflective, maybe not even completely sad
about the breakup but trying to figure out how to carry on afterwards. "Song for
David Berman" has the same airy consistency of Robert Wyatt and the
kaleidoscopic edits of "Sleep It Off" create a dense backdrop for bright vocal
harmonies with a quilt of glitchy electronic rhythms, distorted marimba, and
close-miked guitar tones. The match of production and songwriting keeps things
interesting throughout the album without ever fading too far into
self-indulgence. Even when the songs seem fragmentary and threaten to slip into
their own weirdness, every weird moment seems to function in the framework of a
greater unknown purpose. That sense of foggy mystery defines Dagger Beach. While
it's not Vanderslice's most direct work, it's some of his most interesting. The
plethora of unlikely choices adds a depth and tension to the songs, recalling a
variety of unique reference points while creating the album's own remarkably
strange, remarkably honest statement.

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