Pity the publicist who offers up an exaggerated sense of their artist’s sound.
I’ve been offering up some semblance of music criticism since I was a senior in high school (Great Bridge HS, class of ‘87, thank you very much), and believe me when I tell you that there’s nothing worse than getting a press release which trumpets an artist as sounding like one thing, only to find upon listening to said artist that, although you can kinda-sorta hear the comparisons that’ve been cited, you’re feeling like a grade-A sucker for falling for a bunch of hype.
Dave Dill’s publicist, however, wisely let other people do the heavy lifting for her, sending out an E-mail which consisted predominantly of a review of Dave’s latest album, Follow the Summer, by Jack Rabid, the man behind The Big Takeover…and what a review it was:
I seem to be getting a lot of solo guys recording alone this issue, but fortunately there’s talent involved. This is Cranston, RI native Dill’s fifth such LP, and a writer at Absolute Powerpop compared Dill to Brian Wilson, his backing Wondermints, and Jon Brion—three L.A. luminaries that popped into my head (maybe a little Emitt Rhodes post Merry-Go-Round, too). But there’s also tincey bits of the four horsemen, Beatles, Badfinger, Todd Rundgren, and Big Star—if they’d been recording cheery, feel-good, mellow soft-psych pop with Wilson circa 20/20, instead. There’s also three songs, interestingly enough, co-written with Derek Holt of ’70s Brits Climax Blues Band. Dill’s voice, though, reminds of Gerry Rafferty of Steelers’ Wheel and solo, only more harmonies-driven. Very pleasant little disc!
Wow.
I’ve read a lot of reviews in my time, but there have been precious few which have captured my curiosity quite as much as this one. Granted, Jack’s been known to exercise hyperbole on occasion, but he’s also just as capable of dismissing a record with a few withering words. Reading this, therefore, was enough to inspire me to request a copy of the disc, and, man, am I glad that I did. As soon as I slipped Follow the Summer into the CD player, I was smitten…so much so that I proceeded to go buy his preceding two albums immediately thereafter.
