Fundamentally artful
Los Angeles-based band Dawes is back with their eighth studio album with hopes of fighting the stigma of short attention spans. Misadventures of Doomscroller contains seven lengthy tracks that lean away from the repetitive and instead opt to move into an attention-grabbing faction.
The first track on the album, “Someone Else’s Cafe/Doomscroller Tries To Relax,” is a slowed-down contemplative bop. It has a smooth flow containing selective guitar pieces and even newer sounds that work for the song. Lead singer Taylor Goldsmith touches on topics such as control, arbitrary demands and transiency.
Next up is “Comes In Waves” which shows how Dawes has mastered the art of simplicity. It is intricate and magical, which is something that is rarely heard. It is clean and features the right amount of collaboration from the drums, electric guitar and compelling imagery due to careful placement of a single guitar solo at the end of the track. It is a counterintuitive track of displaying the meaning of change.
“Everything Is Permanent” is a song led by a weaving drum and a guitar solo that carries Goldsmith’s lyrics from the beginning to the end. It is a jam-packed track full of leading lyrics, jaw-dropping rhymes, a reference to subliminal obscenities, gaggles of gossip and throwbacks that nod to the era of mixed CDs and dial tones. “Where we would listen to the universe think / while our heroes from the wreckage / deliver us their message” is a notable lyric that is a fine example of something truly leading.
“Ghost In The Machine” is a candid track on Dawes perspective on their early days as the band was touring. This song has all the bells and whistles with extra percussion and a noteworthy rhythm guitar. It is a romanticized track in its own right of one’s own journey. An awe-inspiring lyric of this hit, “Turning madness into waveforms / searching chords for what’s beneath,” screams faith and belief into the music.
Misadventures of Doomscroller is an album that is organic, insightful and unique. Each song is like a chapter, a chapter of where exactly the band is and where they have been. It has the right amount of emotion to convey certain struggles as well as an electricity to rewire old mindsets and fuel to see what is ahead. Misadventures of Doomscroller is worth the listen if looking for an intriguing and refreshing album.
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