From out of the Pennsylvanian woods comes a little gem
Death Valley Dreams are a four piece from – handily – Death Valley in Pennsylvania. The band consists of long time friends and band-mates Nick Coyle (The Drama Club, Stardog Champion) and Jon Nova (The Drama Club, An Albatross), who recently reunited, along with other long time friends and band-mates Ryan Dougherty and Matt Rutkoski. Those bands might not mean a great deal, perhaps, at MV towers (and maybe not in the wider UK too) but put them together and they rather demand your attention.
Simply put: whatever their history – and we can all go back and check out their other bands later – if this is the present then you best get on board right now, because this five tracker is pretty astonishing.
The accompanying press release that came with the record said that that the band were “a new wave, neo-psychedelic, post punk outfit, and while all that might be true – you suspect that DVD are going to be one of those bands that cross over and are all things to all men – to these ears it’s like this: if you take the blue collar songwriting of Springsteen and The Gaslight Anthem, marry it all with the widescreen intent of Arcade Fire, add the longing of Augustine’s and and give things a world weary feel, then you’d end up with something a little like this.
There’s scarcely a weak point here, never mind a weak song, but if forced to pick a best track it’d be hard to look past opener “Words Like Fire” in which singer Nick Coyle suggests he’s “all fucked up, nowhere to go” like he means it, over pulsing instrumentation.
It’s equally brilliant follow up “The Darker Years” which has the same huge feel, but adds some clever keyboards and an even bigger chorus, runs it close, and really this is a very special collection as exemplified elsewhere by “Turn Out Those Eyes” which, with its well picked out strings, is a classicly timeless effort.
Death Valley Dreams are a very American sounding act – this is not meant as anything other than a compliment – it would be difficult to imagine a British act pulling off something with the ambition of the charged up “Take A Look At Yourself”, and even the closing balladry of “Never Meant For Anyone” manages to flow with an energy that palpably crackles throughout.
Every so often an EP comes along that defies genres and defies description. This is that record. Death Valley Dreams are very much alive.
Rating 9/10
Death Valley Dreams is out today
