Dawes, the Laurel Canyon concomitant of the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Jackson Browne, and many other soft rock, well played, somewhat conceptually mellow rock bands from the 1970s, fourth album, All Your Favorite Bands, is considered their breakthrough from sometime Conor Oberst backing up and wannabe upstarts, to mature rock avatars for a new generation. Tasteful, but deeply pained, heart on sleeves old style rock group.
In other words, if ever a man seemed at home at Jenny’s house toking on a joint and waiting his turn on the guitar, that man is Dawes singer-songwriter Taylor Goldsmith, the hippie smug veneer is all Jackson Browne, all incipient rock classism. And while I once hung around with Taylor at a Kurt Vile concert and found him quite pleasant, to my mind that counts for nothing and the Dawes are what they are, a smug, classy, tasteful drag.
So how do you match that appraisal with the much lauded All Your Favorite Bands, an album compared favorably to the Eagles (kinda oxymoron but whatever) ? You don’t, the lauders mistake well played and soulful guitar work, strong arrangements, good lyrics and good enough playing with great songs.
Yes, the problem is, again, the songs. Dawes are a band that is good for two terrific songs an album, songs that work on all cylinders, and here we get three. “All Your Favorite Bands”, a “Forever Young” by other means to different folks, is one of the keepers here. I’ll give Taylor the gorgeous “All Your favorite Bands”. The dramatic “To Be Completely Honest”, a storming song. And best of the lot, as well as the reason we are suddenly getting Eagle comparisons, “I Can’t Think About It Now” The last three minutes of “I Can’t Think About It Now” has Dawes coming across like a So Cal jam band; it has a well-oiled jangly Tex Mex mood guitar swing, a really great sound and a first rate solo right in the heart of the matter that seems to have escaped from not Joe Walsh but Timothy B. Schmitt. Praise of a sort for sure. And while “It makes me wonder what I’m chasing like a dancer breaking in new shoes” is not Warren Zevon, it signifies here.
Dawes remind me a little of Old 97’s and Taylor has Rhett’s exact same problem: he lacks consistency. Earlier this year Rhett released a solo album that plays like an untidier version of Dawes, and Rhett had one great song on it, the excellent “Jules” and nothing else. Taylor can seem to nail the melody every once in awhile and skirts by on his band and his way with a lyric.
The album is a break up special, and it is good and if it had a few more songs it might venture into great land, but the first single “Right On Time” is all that’s wrong here: it is well played but mushy, a tasteful drag and that’s Dawes problem: they are a tasteful drag. And three songs does not an album make
Grade: B
I’m astounded by the shallowness of your intellect. You’ve carelessly thrown together words to sound important without mention of this band’s hard fought journey or the respect their influences give them. Maybe that’s precisely why you don’t get Dawes. Oh, and there is no “the” in this bands name (2nd paragraph, last sentence).
It takes research and knowledge to come off as informed…
yeah, that boat trip from cuba was a bitch i hear -il
Strangest review ever. Let’s start with the mention that you “hung around” with the boys at a show (were they standing near you in the crowd?) and found Taylor “pleasant”. But then – oh well – for kicks, let’s discard that impression and label them “smug” and a “drag”. That makes you sound so full of humility. Moving on to the songs – yes, the 3 “terrific” songs, and the other 5 that are “well played” with “soulful guitar work, strong arrangements, good lyrics” where Taylor is relying on his band (Oh, that’s a bad thing?). Hmmm, sounds fairly wonderful to me. In the end, you find fault with only one song, and that by using vague adjectives. Yet, you name-call like a middle-schooler and call it a day. So very odd.
In addition, your annoyed and non-sensical knee-jerk reaction to Jimmy M is uncalled for. And no, I don’t know him.
Too bad. You write rather well in places, despite the comma splice. Three of the paragraphs are nicely done. But 3 out of 6 does not a good review make.
Let me make it clearer: the songs aren’t good enough -IL