Dear Companion
Daniel Martin Moore and Ben Sollee
Score:73
Reviewer: Ed Butler
Label: Sub Pop (USA & UK), Stomp (Australia)
Reviewed: Mar 11th '10, Released:2010
The opening impressions of Dear Companion are so fiercely reminiscent of Simon and Garfunkel. There's this tall, lanky guitarist accompanying diminutive singer standing in gentle, patient poses on the cover. And then there's the opening bars of ‘Something, Somewhere, Sometime’ featuring gentle, meandering vocal harmonies. Because of this it is easy to overlook just how little like Simon and Garfunkel the album is.
The result of a Kentucky collaboration, Sollee, Martin Moore and My Morning Jacket’s Jim James take on production duties, Dear Companion is an ode to their home state of sorts, steeped in traditional bluegrass and banjo-soaked blues. Thankfully, what could be a fairly mundane set of old-time nostalgia is transformed into something occasionally special. Sollee already had a reputation for envelope-pushing on his primary instrument, the cello, and his percussive, sawing style anchors Martin Moore’s folksy excursions.
Come the final, mournful ‘It Won’t Be Long’, the pair’s track sequencing emerges as their hidden strength. Bouncy hoe-downs like the title track are carefully interspersed with swooning ballads (‘My Wealth Comes to Me’) and Depression-era blues (‘Only a Song’) seamlessly, with no sense of clashing sounds.
Strangely, though, for a 37-minute record, it does feel as though it overstays its welcome ever-so slightly. By the penultimate ‘Sweet Marie’, one could be forgiven for harbouring a craving for the occasional snare drum. Even a brush stroke on a skin would add sufficient extra verve to rouse the listener. Instead, cello pairs with clarinet for an admittedly beautiful interlude, but one that would hold the listener’s attention better if it came 10 minutes earlier.
Daniel Martin Moore was a rare pickup by Sub Pop, sending in unsolicited demo tracks to the label. It seems wise for the group to have picked him up; his quaintly backwards-looking folk and husky voice pairs well with Sollee’s grandiose strings and tenor croon. Simon and Garfunkel this ain’t, but it is nonetheless satisfying to see someone attempting to pick up the mantle and offer an intelligent, subdued male duo after all these years.
