On this obviously titled fifth album, Sydney-based Dappled Cities takes the notion of what it means to be a \u201cband\u201d to a whole new level of seriousness, especially considering that they exist in an age of music that is often recorded solitary on a computer. As co-frontman Dave Rennick said in an interview, which jives with his band\u2019s work on |||||<\/i> (Five<\/i>): \u201c\u2026All of these laptop producers. We saw this happening, and well, that\u2019s not us. I see it as a fundamentally different art form, so it leaves us to question, \u2018Who are we?\u2019 And the answer really is, we\u2019re a band! And what do bands do? Oh, that\u2019s right, they get into the room with a song and fucking play together and try not to overthink it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Five<\/i> has the aesthetics of \u201970s soft rock, which is based on catchy tracks that relied singularly on great songwriting, musicianship, and singing. Or in Rennick\u2019s words, \u201cWe were really going deep in that (late-\u201970s pop rock). I think what drew us to it, it\u2019s music made by bands, and more specifically musicians in the bands.\u201d For all its kinship with \u201970s classic rock, Five<\/i> does not appear like an album that\u2019s stuck in the past. This is very much a record of the present, touching upon a surprising number of different styles within its retro setting, and it still feels incredibly cohesive.<\/p>\n
Opening song \u201cIn Light Of No One\u201d is mellow and folksy, with a War On Drugs appeal. The ensuing \u201cStone Man\u201d is a groovy disco cut with soulful vocals that also sounds very modern at the same time. \u201cThat Sound\u201d is also quite dancey, with an immediacy to the vocals and the drumming, that is very \u201980s post-punk.<\/p>\n
\u201cWeightless\u201d and \u201cSpacechild\u201d are spacey and psychedelic. On the former, Rennick sings primarily with a deep voice, and the song has a David Bowie-esque dramatic feel as it builds up to an explosive ending. The latter cut has a rather Floyd-esque breeziness and sereneness, with Rennick singing in vocal harmony with a falsetto voice.<\/p>\n
\u201cKnow Your History\u201d and \u201cWhat Is Impossible\u201d come across as the most ostensibly classic rock on this disc with the combination of gentle and swaying guitar, piano-driven music, and vocals that sound like they could be on classic rock radio. Both these have a true \u201cband\u201d feel, something that is performed by five musicians playing together. <\/p>\n
On the other hand, there is the album outlier \u201cDriving Home At Night Alone,\u201d which is best suited for the situation described in its title. As a minimal track with just a floaty synthesizer sound in the backdrop and drums in the foreground, this is more like a cut by a solo bedroom musician than a full-fledged band. Still, \u201cDriving Home At Night Alone\u201d is no less amazing than the rest of Five<\/i>. In fact, it is one of this record\u2019s best numbers; the hauntingly beautiful vocals are made more powerful by its sparse music.<\/p>\n
Even with all its different nuances, Five<\/i> is a focussed, seamless, and superbly produced album. The only sort of problem that it might have is that it has too many highlights to mention. This sounds a lot like the type of record that Rennick hoped for. Especially in the indie music world where a band coming together and playing is becoming somewhat of a lost art, Dappled Cities shows just how well it is done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":33441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[10146],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-45259","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-dappled-cities","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45259","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\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45259"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45259"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}