{"id":47244,"date":"2025-10-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/to-a-better-dark\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T00:00:00","slug":"to-a-better-dark","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/to-a-better-dark\/","title":{"rendered":"To A Better Dark"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The St. Louis native and veteran singer-songwriter Kevin Koplar turns in an impressive debut, where the drummer Brendan Buckley and Funky Butt Brass Band are along for the folk tunes that pack a bit of a bite and are both raw and unpredictable. <\/div>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<div>The thumping and charged folk-rock of \u201cIf You Knock Hard Enough\u201d opens with Koplar&#8217;s very distinct voice guiding the gritty melodies and powerful horns via the FBBB. \u201cBroken Breeze\u201d then recruits warm acoustic guitar for a campfire ambience that builds into an orchestral backdrop thanks to a string quartet, and \u201cBlood Sugar\u201d offers a poetic moment of vivid wordplay alongside light guitar that erupts into an animated, retro-rocker.<\/div>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<div>The middle tracks treat us to the pretty keys and dreaminess of \u201cLove, Lies &#038; Lust\u201d that gets a bit busy later, plus the buzzing, power-pop fun of the bouncy and infectious \u201cThe Givers\u201d. It&#8217;s a song so great, you&#8217;d swear you heard it on the radio years ago and sang along with the windows rolled down. \u201cAutopsy-Turvy\u201d then balances soft gestures with punchy moments of rhythmic and percussively strong flavor.<\/div>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<div>The final three tracks continue the diversity. \u201cEmiley\u201d is a fun duet of anthemic songwriting that you just can&#8217;t not sing-along to, while \u201cTugboat\u201d offer a heartfelt delivery of intimate singing and rich musicianship that gets pretty firm near the end. \u201cLaugh Alone\u201d exits, and uses indie-rock ideas for a colorful and authentic finish. <\/div>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<div>Few genres are off limits here, as Koplar borrows from funk, garage, soul, Big Band, blues, jazz, pop and rock in a way that can bring to mind Bob Dylan and Jack White simultaneously. For fans of rock&#8217;nroll from any era, this is a record that demands your attention and makes a lasting impression. <\/div>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":35351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[11115],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-47244","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-kevin-koplar","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47244","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\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=47244"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=47244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}