This is the latest album from David Andrew Strackany who records under the name of Paleo. He lives out of a car, produces all his own records and books all his own gigs. This album gives you thirteen tracks of his own brand of lo-fi psych-folk, which when it is good, it’s very good.
The title track ‘A View Of The Sky’ opens the proceedings and starts off as a countrified strum with some excellent mariachi horns. His voice varies between a Lou Reed and Bob Dylan type drawl which is buried in a fuzzy mix. On first hearing it sounded a bit to me like a long lost Velvet Underground demo.
The lyrics are pointed and clever, musing on what appears to be an on/off relationship: - “Before you know it, we’re back in the sack, arms and legs going every which way/ Here we are after all this time, squirming like worms in the rain.”
There is an atmosphere of desolation and hopelessness which is all-pervasive: - “And there is nothing out this window but a view of the sky/ Empty and old and a thousand miles wide.”
‘World’s Smallest Violin’ is a dose of electric folk which is both upbeat and moving, criticising a girlfriend who is bemoaning her situation: - “You say that you’re poor but you’re not. You’re not that poor honey/ Take a good look around at all the things you got.”
With two strong tracks, the album gets off to a great start, but from here on it’s patchy, varying between the really good and the forgettable, and the track ‘The King James Fakebook’ belongs in the latter category.
‘Too In Love To Die’ is better, and marks a change of pace, being a slow, sombre folk ballad complete with funereal organ: “Another day, another time. Perhaps I’m too in love to die.
When I gaze at the end of days, I do not close my eyes.”
Another excellent track is ‘Good Blood’, which is like early Pere Ubu, with a good drum and bass line, overlaid with a spiky fuzz guitar and vocals slightly out of synch. The lyrics are quite evocative and the wordplay id reminiscent of early Bob Dylan: - “Birds and stones, grey flesh and black bones/The poems you wrote like row boats floating in the sky/ Dark eyes looking for the light.”
|
‘Hello And Behold’ is an upbeat country/folk tune that is a little reminiscent of the Velvet Underground circa their third album. Again, the lyrics are interesting and thought provoking: -
“I see you walking around now, like you’re Lady Macbeth,
Washing your hands and holding your breath.”
‘Man Oh Man’ is another upbeat country track which is slightly Dylanesque: - “Anything goes between a bird and a stone, between the beach and the foam of the waves/ Though the trace by the tide is erased in the sand, there is a plan.”
As stated earlier, when this album’s good, it’s great, but the drawback seems to be that there is little variation in Paleo’s vocals, and as a result some of the songs grate. The last three songs on the album, unfortunately come across as too similar, and as a result, it ends on a low point. This is a shame as it started so well. I think that this may have worked better with the tracks coming in a different order to balance the poppier songs with the more dirgelike, however, there are several highpoints and I would like to hear more of his work.
Partisan Records website
|
