CD Reviews

Delta Spirit | Delta Spirit

Rounder (2012)

By ANNIE ZALESKI | March 13, 2012

Last year, Delta Spirit performed at Newport Folk Fest and opened for My Morning Jacket and John Fogerty. The pairings were appropriate, given that the Long Beach-via-San Diego quintet's first two albums were largely rustic, folk-tinged affairs. They approach their music with a broader palette on their third, homonymous album — and the results are spectacular. Exuberant indie-pop signifiers referencing the Beach Boys, Arcade Fire, Spoon, and MMJ dominate — from the nostalgic harmonies waterfalling through "California" and the surf-riff fuzz coating "Idaho," to the drumstick-chop rhythms and coiled psych-rock of "Otherside" and new-wave-power-pop buzz of "Money Saves." Delta Spirit's more atmospheric tracks are just as mesmerizing: on "Time Bomb," pattering percussion marches between measured piano plinks and sustained keyboard chords— creating a majestic pastiche of dreamy '80s synth-rock — while vocalist Matthew Vasquez croons with the classical aplomb of Rufus Wainwright on the lush, soaring "Into The Darkness." The characters in Delta Spirit's songs— wistful daydreamers, hopeless romantics, and clear-eyed pragmatists alike— are as rich and complex as the music. The protagonist of "California" implores a former flame, "I want you to move to California for yourself/I want you to find whatever your heart needs" as a magnanimous way of justifying the heartbreak (and implied break-up) caused by this move. A lovely, thoughtful album.

From Sun Volt to Guthrie with Jay Farrar
Putting together the New Multitudes project, singer-guitarist Jay Farrar had access to a treasure trove: thousands of lyrics from the Woody Guthrie Archives.
Review: Julian Casablancas at the Paradise
Casablancas's solo debut, Phrazes for the Young (RCA), is a bizarre and twisted romp through sophisticated musical stylings that, especially in a live setting, sound light years away from the compact garage minimalism of early Strokes. This was evident from the first notes of the show.
Bass Box | Mother Box
The debut full-length from Bass Box is worth a listen if only for its originality. I can't remember an album that explores as much of the contemporary musical canon — rock, pop, folk, jazz, R&B, gypsy, tango — all without use of the drums.
Photos: Dengue Fever and Omar Souleyman at the Paradise Rock Club
Dengue Fever and Omar Souleyman played the Paradise Rock Club on June 3, 2012.
Dr. Dog is the drug
On their current trek, promoting their playful and raw seventh album, Be the Void (Anti-), Dr. Dog have reached headliner status, playing the biggest, most tightly packed rooms of their career.
Dr. Dog | Be the Void
With Be the Void , their sonically raw sixth album, these Philly psych-pop oddballs have pulled a fussy, self-conscious about-face, indulging in their weirdest ideas in years.
The Lisps try to deliver a message in 'Futurity'
It isn't easy to put together a 90-minute musical that includes the Civil War, the birth of computer programming, indie rock, the internal dynamics of Lord Byron's family, mathematical formulas, and writing letters back and forth about an invention that will either save the world or be a precursor to the atom bomb.
As he is
For all the defiant, anguished fists we shake in the general direction of New York and Los Angeles whenever a musician becomes way more famous after they leave Boston, perhaps this city's gypsy-attracting disposition has advantages.
Interview: Patrick Norton has a knack for mixing it up at the Narrows
The Narrows Center for the Arts — the bastion of blues, folk, jazz, rock, and various stripes of singer-songwriter fare — has a decade of action under its belt.
Teddy Thompson becomes his own man
Sometimes a writer winces at the thought of having to ask the obvious but necessary question. So I'm grateful to Teddy Thompson for answering before I can even ask.
Slideshow: Soundtrack of Our Lives
Live at the Paradise
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Topics: CD Reviews , Paradise Rock Club, Rufus Wainwright, John Fogerty, More

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