THE ARCS: YOURS, DREAMILY (2015)
1) Once We Begin (Intro); 2)
Outta My Mind; 3) Put A Flower In Your Pocket; 4) Pistol Made Of Bones; 5)
Everything You Do (You Do For You); 6) Stay In My Corner; 7) Cold Companion;
8) The Arc; 9) Nature's Child; 10) Velvet Ditch; 11) Chains Of Love; 12) Come
& Go; 13) Rosie (Ooh La La); 14) Searching The Blue.
Although «The Arcs» were assembled as a side
project of Danny Auerbach, comparison of their first (and so far, only) album
with the latest production of The Black Keys shows that Danny probably just
wanted to take a break from Carney — because Yours, Dreamily is easily seen as a next logical step in Auerbach's
evolution from grizzly blues-rocker into a moody popster, sort of like a
one-man Fleetwood Mac in all of its multiple consecutive incarnations (at least
he does not have a spare Christine McVie-type personality). Assisting him in
this evolution are: keyboard and horn player Leon Michels (who also plays sax
in his own band, El Michels Affair), drummer and general multi-instrumentalist
Richard Swift (who is also a member of The Shins), and, to a lesser extent,
drummer Homer Steinweiss and bassist Nick Movshon, who used to play for the
late Amy Winehouse, among others. They all share songwriting credits with
Auerbach — particularly Leon Michels — but it is very perfectly clear that this
is essentially Danny's project from top to bottom, as his personal unshaved
aura is all over the place.
And there's nothing wrong with that, either: Yours, Dreamily is an excellent album,
full to the brim (a very reasonable 45-minute long brim) with clever, tasteful,
and almost instantly memorable «blues-pop» songs that are about as worthy a
continuation of the Brothers / El Camino
/ Turn Blue tradition as could be. The sentiments throughout are generally
the same — brooding, soulful, a little melancholic, maybe even a tad
misanthropic, reflecting an artistic depression that is quiet, but subtly deep
enough to make you want to kill yourself if you spend too much time digging:
ʽEverything You Do (You Do For You)ʼ, a mean mean reversal of the crappy
message of the Bryan Adams song, could be understood as a personal complaint
about an egoistic lover, or it could
be just as easily interpreted as a bash of the general reason why everything goes
wrong in this world of ours. Well, probably not — most of the songs here are
directly woman-related — but the music has a consistent «world-weary» makeover
that will be of great use to you whenever you feel pissed at either your
partner, or The System, or your own unenviable personal role in the
consequences of the Big Bang.
The songs are generally blues- or jazz-based,
but always with catchy vocal hooks, most of which are traditionally lodged in
the song title: as a concluding chorus line of each depressed verse, the line
"everything you do, you do for you" falls with a heavy falsetto thud
like a killer stone (and the percussion is produced like a series of ominous
faraway thumps to emphasize the effect), and so does the concluding line of
ʽPistol Made Of Bonesʼ, a rather transparent metaphor for the past coming to
haunt the protagonist. On the other hand, ʽStay In My Cornerʼ, almost
completely sung in falsetto and owing its existence to Sam Cooke, Ben E. King,
Al Green, or any other master of the American R&B tradition, has the hook
dutifully delivered like a tender plea, because, well, somebody is gotta be there for the protagonist to shield him from
all these dark thoughts, and to make his case even stronger, the protagonist is
also going to play a loud, slightly distorted, heart-breaking slide guitar solo
for that special somebody.
Although the album was not produced by Danger
Mouse (Auerbach and Michels took care of production themselves), his legacy is
noticeable — there's echo all over the place, a wide variety of guitar effects
(such as the «burping» tone on ʽThe Arcʼ, whose riff, by the way, bears an iffy
resemblance to ʽMoney For Nothingʼ), different percussion on every track,
ranging from drum machines to the above-mentioned «distant thumping» on
ʽEverything You Doʼ, and other little production tricks that efficiently
modernize the music while keeping its melodic backbone firmly in the past. The
most questionable production decision is probably on ʽCome & Goʼ,
essentially a modern-day cabaret number loaded with love-making moans, a song
that you might find a little problematic to play in the presence of your
parents (depends on the parents, of course) — certainly, the hookline
"the more he comes, the more he goes" will take on quite a
distinctive meaning next to this bit of softporn soundtrack. But then, we're
all grown up here, and this is an
inventive addition to the loungy-smoky atmosphere of the track.
If there is one single flaw to Yours, Dreamily, it is that no single
track stands out above the others — not only is the same mood retained
throughout, but it also constantly stays at the same level of room temperature.
Auerbach never lets that depression carry him away to madness or imaginary suicide,
nor does he allow the fervor of his prayers for delivery to carry him away into
the stratosphere. Perhaps he is right, and perhaps he is simply being honest
with us, expressing his emotionality exactly in the way that it runs through
him, without artificially revving himself up or down — the lamentable
consequence of this being that the album, while totally lovable upon first
listens, will probably not hold up too long in your head.
Then again, was it really meant to? As a mere «detour» from the Black Keys, a side venture
that will neither get a lot of publicity nor a lot of critical attention, Yours, Dreamily exceeds all possible
expectations anyway, and I don't think we could or should be asking for more. When
they finally bring it down with the soothing piano balladeering of ʽSearching
The Blueʼ, a dreamy, moving tune with a bit of the old inquisitive Lennonesque
spirit, we finally get the main question of the album — "Is anything we do
/ Ever gonna last? / Couldn't I have a clue, / Searching the blue?" Well,
I'm not sure if Yours, Dreamily is
going to last, what with all of its
humble tone and un-flashy appearance, but at least it is a record that should
be taken seriously by its contemporaries — and, once again, confirms my
opinion of Auerbach as one of the leading artists of his generation, even if
that may not be meaning all that much in the 2010s. Thumbs up.
No comments:
Post a Comment