Some albums grab you by the lapels and demand a review, pronto; others coax and cajole their way to the front of the queue over weeks of wandering off and circling back again. Mason Summit\u2019s Gunpowder Tracks<\/i> might have taken its time igniting my imagination, but once the fuse was lit, our meeting here today became inevitable; these songs are simply too rich with unhurried charm and subtle craft to be ignored.<\/p>\n
Gunpowder Tracks<\/i> is laid-back dream-pop at its finest, full of deceptively laconic vocals, layered and varied instrumentation, and gauzy yet engaging storytelling. Singer-songwriter \/ producer Summit wields acoustic and electric guitars, sitar, Mellotron, synth, electric piano and rainstick, while engineer \/ mixer John McDuffie contributes dreamy pedal and lap steel guitars and a variety of electric guitar textures and effects. Carl Byron (piano, organ, accordion), Jeff Turnes (bass, clarinet) and Shawn Nourse (drums & percussion) round out the ensemble behind these often densely-layered tunes.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard not hear echoes of Bens Folds and Kweller in piano-based tunes like opener \u201cCellophane Skin,\u201d though Summit lacks the manic fire of either, instead residing comfortably in a melancholy mid-tempo haze that he decorates with ascending vocals counterpointed by painterly strokes of steel guitar. The gently poetic lyric describes an abusive relationship from a sort of muted, helpless third-party perspective (\u201cHe\u2019ll tear right through her cellophane skin \/ And she\u2019ll wait until he does it again\u201d). <\/p>\n
Another favorite, \u201cSnakeskin Shoes, Crocodile Tears\u201d dresses up a tart lyric about a user \/ grifter type who sounds suspiciously like an A&R man (\u201cI feel as spent as a dollar in a dime store\u201d) with electric sitar and a purposefully cheesy carousel organ. The willfully playful title track casts a similar spell, taking a witty lyric about burning bridges and adding a Dixieland horn section. (And yes, the rootsy base, dreamy feel and eclectic musical choices do make Wilco comparisons feel inevitable\u2026)<\/p>\n
The middle section of the album passes in a pleasant blur as variations on the above themes flash by one after another. \u201cDetour\u201d has a bit of a sophisticated-jazz-singer vibe (think Spencer Day), while \u201cSuede Pockets\u201d rotates around a thrumming organ line and \u201cHitting All The Reds\u201d suggests an affection for classic Pink Floyd in its vibe of dreamy despair. <\/p>\n
In the final third McDuffie\u2019s reversed electric guitar lights up the otherwise acoustic ballad \u201cSidestreet,\u201d while \u201cGood Thing Going\u201d gives a jazzy spin to a tale of romantic crash-and-burn (\u201cWe could be lovers \/ We could be Bonnie and Clyde \/ But I know, I know, I know, I know \/ It\u2019s common knowledge \/ That I can\u2019t seem to keep a good thing going\u201d). Finally, the layered, snarky \u201cParticles\u201d gives way to closer \u201cLast Time,\u201d another elegy for a relationship: \u201cThere\u2019s a last time for every first \/ And the last time is unrehearsed \/ There\u2019s a last time for every first \/ And the last time will be the worst.\u201d The arrangement really sparkles here, with electric piano, and organ, bongos, tambourine and rainstick all orbiting bass, drums and electric guitar that seem to be playing a light funk \/ jazz tune from around 1974.<\/p>\n
And here\u2019s your punchline: while it\u2019s not surprising to learn that the sophisticated, clever Gunpowder Tracks<\/i> is Summit\u2019s third solo album, it might be once you learn he isn\u2019t old enough yet to buy himself a beer (20-year-old Summit is a student at the USC Thornton School of Music). With this album, Mason Summit firmly establishes himself as an original voice whose low-key yet intricate dream-pop-with-jazz-inflections style complements the winding poetry of his songs beautifully.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":33018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9946],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-44800","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-mason-summit","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44800","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44800"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}