Friday, March 20, 2009

Dan Deacon - Bromst



Baltimore Wham City native Dan Deacon broke into the indie blogosphere with his last album, 2007's "Spiderman of the Rings." Deacon was quoted saying that while 'Spiderman' served as the appetizer to a bigger meal, he wanted Bromst to be that meal. And certainly with how dense the entire album is, one can see why he thought of Bromst as a full meal compared to the palate-whetting 'Spiderman'.

Deacon also said that compared to Spiderman this album was much darker in feel and sound. Because of songs like 'Snookered' (my personal fave) and 'Slow With Horns/Run For Your Life' Bromst can easily be seen as the darker more complicated relative of Spiderman but can also be much more rewarding at times.

Dan Deacon has a bit of a formula when it comes to his songs. He first builds crescendos and then mixes in contrasting chord changes while densely layering sound after sound. This creates Deacons signature sound which is something similar to a cartoon-inspired dance album. However, when the listener gets over the obviousness of a few of Deacon's songs, that is when they can truly enjoy them. Songs like 'Build Voice' and 'Red F' both follow the same type of formula, but if/when you can push this fact out of the way these songs prove to be truly fun songs to listen to (which is the point of almost any Dance type album.) And overall 'Bromst' proves itself as a very enjoyable record.

That being said, by the time I got to tracks like 'Woof Woof' (which is kind of a ripoff of his own song 'Woody Woodpecker')I was starting to get bored with Deacon's sound. Part of me really hopes that he pursues some new instruments and sounds in his next album, if for no other reason than to change his style up just enough to keep me guessing while still being his signature self. Because, as great as many of Deacon's songs are, if his next album is more of the same of his previous two albums, then we are in for a potentially painful album.

Overall, Bromst is an enjoyable album even though it starts to border on repetitive and unoriginal. There are however, enough songs great songs to keep me spinning this record over and over.
7.1/10

Bromst is out on March 24th (next tuesday) from Carpark records.
Pre-order it here


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Now playing: Dan Deacon - Red F
via FoxyTunes