Friday, August 27, 2010

Album Review - We Chase The Waves

Short post today, I have to go get ready for work.

Sundowner - We Chase The Waves (Asian Man Records, 2010)


This album is absolutely fantastic. I first heard about Sundowner around the same time I started listening to Chuck Ragan and Tim Barry. I loved the idea of these punk rockers picking up acoustic guitars and making something different, so I was browsing iTunes in the "other customers bought this" section and came across Four One Five Two, Sundowner's first album.


Sundowner is the acoustic alter-ego of Chris McCaughan of Chicago punks The Lawrence Arms. There's an interview regarding this album over at Punknews.org


I've listened to the album in its entirety about 6 or 7 times since it came out on August 10th. The guitar parts are simple, but effective. The lyrics are often beautiful and Chris sings them very well. The album doesn't have the cello parts that Four One Five Two had, but the songs are so well performed that they aren't needed as much as they were on the first album. Highlight tracks for me are "Araby" (which I can't quite tell if it's a reference to James Joyce's short story of the same name) and "As The Crow Flies" ("I've got strings and calloused fingers, a scratchy throat, a melody that lingers," "I've got a bunch of notes I've scribbled down, I think I can make a song somehow").

Lawrence Arms bassist and co-vocalist Brendan Kelly also has a solo album expected out soon, which I am very excited about. So hopefully in the next few months I'll be able to write about that.

  

No comments:

Post a Comment