"let us debate until we run dry"
The track So Loud sits smack dab in the middle of David Barnard's recently released full length debut album "Put Down Your Phone" and of the track, this New Paltz, New York singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist (and trouble maker) offers:
“I got the idea for this song in my kitchen while dealing with the beginnings of mental turmoil in my life. After a bad acid trip that got me kicked out of college and back home living with my parents my escape would be drinking and jamming at my close friend John who helped me with the first couple chords.”
AND, hell, the "trouble maker" tag was totally uncalled for. I don't know this talented man but I guess I get that sense from some of the songs on PDYP but I digress, so let's get to So Loud for the moment. The track plays like the internal bluesy / jazz meets indie rock (tinges of tropicalia) meanderings of a man having a smoke and drink on an East coast balcony. Barnard's vox feel (in some ways) like a 50's crooner and there are sections of So Loud that if pasted beneath footage of Fred Astaire would feel right. The chorus on the other hand has a sort of 90's rock take and there is something in Barnard's mid-range aesthetic that made me flash on Brandon Boyd (Incubus).
So, yes, Barnard's style even within other tones on the album is definitely a crooner. The style with his crisp vocal style allow us all to hear all his acerbic lyrics well. On Play, Play, Play his crooner style falls backwards perfectly in the sock hop punk (Buttertones like) tone and made me smile (though the lyrics contain hard truths) but Bernard does not set his style in concrete. The track Half Priced Smokes feels like roots, blue grass meets folk and Bernard pushes the croon out on this one. It is adeptly played and feels authentic to the genre. I love the lyrics spun with authentic reflections and smart quips:
"Much more often approaching my coffin I
Feel as guilty as Sarah McLachlan makes me feel
when she says on the tube “baby, keep it real”
On Lord I'm Afraid, Barnard sings wistfully about his fear of becoming boring. A common fear, isn't it? Eyes On The Road ambles cynically on a "Happy Trails to You" guitar lick. It is lush, with floating flute lines (played by Barnard). The title track (aw, the title track) Put Down Your Phone is a dream land of a song or maybe like a dream sequence in a Joel and Ethan Coen movie. Beautiful, stunning, shiny and heartbreaking and funny at the same time. It is like a pretty dagger stabbed in your chest by someone you love.
I am going to let you discover the rest of the album by yourself and tell me what you think. Oh, and I was right, so fucking right that David Barnard is a god damned troublemaker. I mean that as a complement by the way, totally. In the end, his album "Put Down Your Phone" is stylistically kind of all over the place probably due to the fact that he was all over the place (literally) when the inspirations for these songs stuck him (maybe like that dagger) traveling and keeping his eyes and heart open. The breath and scope (maybe especially his lyrics) run so personally deep that they are universal.
(from his Bandcamp)
New Paltz, Nashville, Austin, Saint Paul and Portland have their own voices. “If you stand still enough the town will sing through you, Ive never stuck around long enough to hear the whole song but the beginning sounds nice.” David Barnard staples maps to apartment walls he will only live in for a couple months. Take the same advice he gave to his partner
“3 words babe” he says with a mouth full of sandwich
“try even harder?” she says looking up from tinder
“Lower your standards” he says smiling closing the fridge
The last track on "Put Down Your Phone" named Overtime is a beautifully funny and gracious musical thank you to all who inspired Barnard and assisted on this wonderful album. An album that feels like a true labor of love, hope, a little despair, reconciliation, acceptance and maybe a busted lip.
-
Robb Donker
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
Although David Barnard’s debut album “Put Down Your Phone” is diverse and robust take on a modern issue, Its not as ephemeral as a pbandj.
Although David Barnard’s varied approach to songwriting offers both a contemplative and fun perspective on the idea of an album he is far too fond of long sentences.
Although David Barnard writes and resides in New Paltz, NY and his album releases on the the 30th of November he cant quite place the origins of his lust for breakfast sandwich.
Although David Barnard was born of two music teachers and has been studying and performing music since childhood he peaked at 7 when he sang in the Mannheim Opera house in Germany. Some years later after a couple of attempts at college (Potsdam, McNally Smith, RCC) he resigned to educate through travel. Reliving the glory days of prepubescent semi fame that accompanies natural talent devoid of any form of dutifulness. He was inspired by Austin, Portland, Nashville and Saint Paul and after some time started to get his shit together.
David Barnard strives to write striking, pensive and entertaining tunes and wants professional writers to help give his music some legitimacy.
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