I want to start by saying that this is best album cover and title of 2010. That shit is funny. <\/p>\n
Anyway, people often compare vocalist\/pianist Mr. Isaac Allen to Tom Waits, Nick Cave, and Leonard Cohen. Voice-wise, Cave is the best comparison. Cave and Allen have smoother voices than Waits and Cohen (excluding Waits\u2019 earlier stuff, where he has a voice that\u2019s not quite as low as Cave\u2019s or Allen\u2019s). As far as the songs go, I am definitely reminded of Waits\u2019 first few albums at times, but Allen is his own artist when you get down to it. <\/p>\n
The variety of characters that Allen presents in Don\u2019t Smoke <\/i>is impressive. Sure, common themes exist between a few songs, but Allen\u2019s presentation is always different. For example, you could pretty much say \u201cThe Devil\u201d and \u201cThe Mouse In My Head\u201d are the same song thematically, but the former is bluesy, dark, and deliberate, whereas the latter is an upbeat jazz ditty. <\/p>\n
\u201cDaddy\u2019s On Death Row\u201d is the Big Song on the album, even though the back of the case incorrectly says \u201cSaddle\u201d is longer (the songs are good, so I forgive the multiple discrepancies between what the CD case says and what my player says). You might think that either Allen put more work into \u201cDaddy\u2019s On Death Row\u201d or that it\u2019s simply more emotionally resonant than the majority of the album. I\u2019ll go with the latter. The song is sung from the perspective of a child for the most part and includes a tasteful two-minute jam. The story falters only once, right before the jam, when Allen switches to a second-person perspective and sings \u201cYou know the truth \/ But you are not told \/ Your momma\u2019s a whore \/ And your daddy\u2019s on death row.\u201d The perspective change is abrupt and damages the pathos for me, but thankfully, the line after those lyrics (\u201cAnd home is this mobile hole, hole, hole\u201d) and Allen\u2019s delivery are incredible. <\/p>\n
Other characters pull less at the heart but are nonetheless entertaining. The signature line in \u201cWhalley Avenue\u201d (\u201cLooking for a bag of dope \/ Maybe a girl to choke\u201d) brings to mind an interesting question: is the married protagonist a cheater with a fetish, or is he a murderer? My favorite character has to be the titular \u201cBernie Madoff,\u201d a Wall Street man who doesn\u2019t give a damn about those outside of his social class. How poignant given the disparity of wealth in the United States that drives so much of our national politics. <\/p>\n
I haven\u2019t said much about Allen\u2019s band, which changes a good bit throughout the album. Backing vocalist Sara-Joy Liebig adds a lot to the proceedings, though vocalist Gwen Henderson is memorable on \u201cWhalley Avenue.\u201d Matt Oestreicher is an essential piece; in addition to playing the organ, synths, and some piano, he arranges a few of the songs, including \u201cDaddy\u2019s On Death Row.\u201d Other standouts include Dick Neal and Jerry Giamo, whose mandolin and electric guitar give a distinctive country flavor to \u201cSaddle,\u201d respectively. But really, there is something to like about all of these musicians, and it says something that both producers, Vic Steffens and Oestreicher, add their own instrumentation. <\/p>\n
I\u2019ll admit it took me a while to appreciate what Don\u2019t Smoke <\/i>has to offer. \u201cThe Mouse In My Head\u201d is the only song I liked immediately. But more listening showed me Mr. Isaac Allen is the real deal, and given that he\u2019s just in his mid-twenties, I expect to hear more from him. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":30732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8742],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-42407","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-mr-isaac-allen","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42407"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}