If you’re in the mood for some smoky beats and clandestine harmonies that, once they’ve revealed themselves to us, are difficult to shake from your consciousness, David Gelman’s got the right tunes for you in “Lonely Tonight,” “Let It All Go” and “Soft Surrender.” If instead it’s twang, tone and richly surreal (but nevertheless evocative) lyrics you seek, “Because You Love Me,” “My Vows to You (The Wedding Song)” and “Wasting Away” should have your needs covered. Haunting melodicism skewed with poetry of the pastoral variety? “Far Away” and “Set It Free” fit the bill perfectly. Often as rustic as it is a slave to a strangely provocative approach to rhythm itself, folk/rock buffs simply can’t go wrong with this, the tracklist of David Gelman’s Last Surviving Son, currently available in its entirety on the third official album from the acclaimed singer/songwriter, and I’m not the first critic to say so.
SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/davidgelmanmusic/sets/last-surviving-son
Last Surviving Son debuted in 2019 to a warm reception across the board, and a big part of the reason for this is inarguably because of its stylish sound – perhaps best exhibited in the marvelously mastered “Feel Alright,” string-clad “The Roads We Didn’t Take,” exotic “In the Sun,” jittery “Lonely Tonight” and the LP’s smoldering title track. Tightly toned and evenly mixed from start to finish, Gelman’s third record doesn’t spark up because of its production quality alone, but to say that it’s lacking in professional polish would be an outright lie. This is one of the more balanced and mature offerings from this artist so far, both compositionally and cosmetically.
David Gelman is a deep underground artist with a loyal cult following, and after listening to Last Surviving Son for myself just this past week, I can see why his fans have stayed as true to his brand through the last ten years plus as they have. Last Surviving Son is at times a brutally emotional effort steeped in thick lyrical trenches that don’t pull any punches with audiences, but when added up in its totality, this is an LP that showcases everything brilliant about Gelman’s sound and, in all honesty, a one of a kind love for old Americana that many of us would love to hear more of in the contemporary music of the 2020s.
Jodi Marxbury