 | Dawes |
California band Dawes has made some waves recently in the wake of their recent touring in support of this new album of theirs, North Hills. They have a great folksy, countrified rock sound to their songs. Some nice jamminess, but very down home and earthy for sure. Very slowly built, folky riffs spread throughout the album, they have some great slow down jams that really fit in perfectly with the semi-folk revival going on around the music world nowadays. The songs sound good, they have the right hooks and they hit the right notes, and they have shown that they have the presence to make a name for themselves out there with this material.
The album is a slow, meandering affair that really does not have any kind of blow up/rock out moments, but keeps a very even keel with sublime folk-rock, countrified vocal harmonies and subdued harmonious hooks throughout. It kind of somewhat reminds me of Grand Archives a tiny bit or something of that nature, folksy, woodsy, listener friendly with piano flourishes included, acoustic guitars and occasional hooks with vocal harmonizing. But it isn’t introspective folk stylings such as with Bon Iver or the like, it is clearly full band music, just in a very old style country/folk/rock way. Old school in a good way.
The album features many songs with very well measured and developed hooks. “Love Is All I Am”, “When You Call My Name” and “When My Time Comes” are all very well done tracks that evoke simplicity and passion all at the same time. Additionally, “God Rest My Soul” and “My Girl To Me” feature excellent old school bluesy riffs over some folksy rock backdrops that are just so vintage feeling and simple yet excellent, with the latter featuring a great stop/start rhythm and an organ on the chorus that ties it all together quite well.
These guys have expertly put together an album of folk/blues/country/rock songs that are classic and simple in their stylings and construction, but sometimes when that is executed well it just straight up works and these guys handle these classic riffs and licks very well here. They have a very strong foundation of material with this record to get out there and get heard by more people. Though it is fairly basic, they do it well and that carries them through on this record.
Dawes – Love Is All I Am – From North Hills (Amazon | iTunes)
Dawes – My Girl To Me – From North Hills (Amazon | iTunes)
