Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Album Review: Move By Yourself (Donavon Frankenreiter)

SCENE: Warm summer evening. Lemonade in the right hand, book in the left, sun hasn't quite set allowing the man in the lawn chair to read.

ARIK: Ah, this lemonade is delish, the fireflies are beaut, and I can't stop talking in abbreves. What I need right now is some chill relaxed music to enjoy while I read this Peter Pan book which was definitely not written for people eight years younger than myself.

A tune drifts through the air alighting upon Arik's ears.

ARIK: What's this? A song? Something that reminds me of my warm California years in the sand and ocean? Why- I must know what it is!

UNKNOWN VOICE FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE: It's Donavon Frankenreiter, now shut up!

Okay, so it didn't really happen like that. But the feelings of warmth, crickets, fireflies, and lemonade are all pretty strong in this album. Donavon Frankenreiter's second solo album is really wonderful to listen to, and was a real joy to find. And to be honest, finding it was more like:
ARIK: I need more summer music. Hm. I'll look up summery on allmusic, maybe that'll help.

But that's much less exciting. Anyways, this album really just feels good. It's a strong album all the way around. I mean, there are a few missteps, but it's definitely good. There's a lot of a funk type feel with that Sly Stone synth sound coming in on every other track. This would normally make it sound like a funk revival, but avoids that with some smooth singing. The album opens on one of the more uptempo songs, the title track Move By Yourself (sorry, embedding was disabled for this video, so I'm linking it instead), which at first listen sounds a little preachy, but it's easily overlooked in view of the foottapping beat and guitarage.

After this the album mellows out a little bit more and continues with a more soul/jazz oriented song called The Way It Is (same here). It's got more of that lovely synth, but still keeps the album Donavon's. In fact, Move By Yourself continues this lovely starry sky night sound almost the entire rest of the way. He doesn't get cheesey again, just relaxes and sings about life and love and that whole gang.

Okay, I lied. The last track is well, very cheesey. But it's also quite beautiful. It's got the whole soul singer in the background dealio going on and everything.


Anyway, the album is worth a listen, if not a buy. The Way It Is is probably my favorite track, and worth a buy, if nothing else. I really can't think of a single weak point other than the subject matter of the opening and closing tracks.

No comments: