The What Gives “The What Gives”
A “lost” album from the late 90’s is finally released. The band is Jon Harrison on guitar and keyboards, Bret Dillingham on Drums and Stephen Naron on Bass. Echos of vintage Lemonheads and Adam Marsland are the template here on “The Boy With The Tambourine Heart.” You’ll also hear some Db’s influence on the next few tracks, “Summer Everywhere” is a pretty solid single, and the catchy “When You Drop Dead” is a bit like a They Might Be Giants single, with a juicy jangle solo between choruses. More standouts include “Erin Grey” and “Burn Me Down.” It fizzles out on the last few tracks, but it’s worth adding to your collection for sure.
The DB’s “Falling Off The Sky”
As you might have already heard, Holsapple and Stamey got together and put together a proper DB’s album after almost 30 years. And you can hear they didn’t miss a beat on the opener “That Time Is Gone” and the hook filled “Before We Were Born.” Like Shoes, these guys are 80’s power pop royalty and deserve kudos for giving us a heck of an impressive comeback. But these guys aren’t twenty year olds anymore, as the opening lyrics state “You better wake up, wake up, wake up, That time is gone.”
A wistful maturity has always been part of Stamey and Holsapple’s recent work, and its evidenced in the duo’s ballad “Far Away and Long Ago.” After those initial rocking tunes, the skillful melodies and slower tempos take over, as “Send Me Something Real” has a great chiming guitar lead. Comparisons to REM are apt on the jangle filled rhythms of “World To Cry” and “Collide-oOo-Scope” with it’s sweet chorus. Several songs here are simply average (“She Won’t Drive In The Rain Anymore”) but it doesn’t take away from the great stuff. Enjoy these comeback albums, they don’t happen that often.
