Subdued melodic beauty
David Vassalotti’s new studio album is like a prolific version of a Smiths album–if Morrissey was humble. Curated with a post-punk vision, Guitar Dream will not be nearly as divisive for music critics as his first experimental album Broken Rope. With gloomy melodies as iconic as The Cure’s “Siamese Twins,” David Vassalotti’s Guitar Dream seeps into your mind and pokes and prods while you listen.
Each strum of the guitar in “This Extravagant Lie” rings out into the distance until it dissipates into the next track, while the drums at 2:31 beat three times and initiate a symphonic bridge that sounds like a complete orchestra of instruments. Vassalotti is reinventing the spirit of the ‘80s post-punk age in a contemporary setting, where melancholic chords were left to hide and await their return.
“The Other Light” is a fully instrumental song but not in the way you might assume, with boredom or dreary melodies with no end in sight. If any artist could ask you to feel something without spelling it out, David Vassalotti would be the one. The following track “The Light” sounds like a live performance, with candid emotion filling your eyes with tears of happiness and confusion and loneliness. Vassalotti’s music is purely up to interpretation, with melodies for listening, but wholistically meant for feeling. Like fresh rained-on pavement or a breath of piercing cool air, Vassalotti speaks to his listeners as “In the Garden” blooms with baroque beauty. Honest without pretensions, Vassalotti is lyrically and touchingly relatable.
Let “Devenir immortal…” reconcile your heart-wrenching illnesses with its melancholy, washed out sound. Vassalotti’s romantic vocals will fill your soul with gloomy grievances about the past and the present. But be wary, Vassalotti’s contagious strain of serenity may seep into your conscience in “The Lines Between Us.” Have you contracted an honest love for living yet?
Clouded vocals and a sensational spoken-tone in “Let It Burn” is your new alt-rock go-to. With a strong bassline and drum accompaniment, the guitar strings twitch and twang like the end of a Spanish vinyl. Vassalotti’s music is not daring, nor is it experimental like his first solo album Broken Rope. But Guitar Dream reconciles his musical reverberation with an honest look at the intrapersonal. The strumming dream in “Manifest Destiny” casts a gilded glow in the musical aura, while “Outlines” highlights Vassalotti’s most torrential outpouring of musical honesty. Vassalotti’s album title says it best–a true Guitar Dream.
The closing track “What Shall You Say Tonight” feels significant, drawing you in with building chord progressions like the climax of a critically acclaimed film. This track is far more rock-pop, but in a break-through, romanticized outtake. The Guitar Dream melodies echo in a tunnel of guilt and candid emotion, while David Vassalotti’s voice guides you through the listening experience.
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