After a couple of Nashville-made records with the wonderful Will Hoge at the helm, Dave Hause has realised something important: at heart, he’s a rocker.
“….And The Mermaid” is his reminder of that, written in massive neon letters across every track.
“We ain’t ever gonna die!” he screams at the end of the first verse of opener “Knife In The Mud,” capturing the energy and ebullience that drives this album. “Cellmates” follows, and if it sounds like The Gaslight Anthem – well, no one’s complaining.
There’s chest-beating bombast here too. “If I’m gonna pay for my sins, god damn I wanna sin some more,” he roars over a thunderous drumbeat that wouldn’t have been out of place on Def Leppard’s ’87 heyday.
“Mockingbird Blues” is a supreme example of why Hause is one of the best – the piano lifts it skyward – while the angry “Revisionist History” (“draw the lines between them and us”) leans into an Alice In Chains riff.
Elsewhere, “Yer Outta My Hair” and “Bible Passages” slow the pace, offering glimpses of the record this could have been had Hause taken the singer-songwriter route. But that’s not the point here. The “….And The Mermaid” part – not just the album title but the band too – matters just as much. This is a full-blooded rock ’n’ roll outfit, captured raw. “Rumspringa” is punk-gang energy built for the stage, while the bass groove of “Enough Hope” carries defiance in every note: “we gave a crumb and they ate the whole pie,” Hause spits.
The closer “May Every Last Fever Break” shifts the mood entirely, but its sense of connection is undeniable. “There’ll be a time when you won’t need me” feels like the emotional crux of the whole thing – a reminder that bonds endure.
Hause himself sums it up: “This record is my realization that for as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be in a rock ’n’ roll band. This album is that rock ’n’ roll band, distilled into 10 songs.”
You can hear it too. Not an ounce of fat, just attitude, melody, and heart. Dave Hause first appeared on the MV radar with “Pray For Tucson” back in the last decade, and while he’s never released a bad record, “….And The Mermaid” might just be his finest.
Rating: 9.5/10
