Dr. Dog
(Park The Van)
This Philly band — currently featured in the new July/August digital magazine of BLURT, incidentally — took a crash course in harmony singing off a Pet Sounds box set. And it shows in any number of the more inspired moments here, beginning with the vocal interlude that drops in out of nowhere on the leadoff track “The Breeze,” which up ‘til then had been a sparse acoustic ballad.
The overall feel of the album, though, is much closer in spirit to what the Wilson family drifted into after Pet Sounds, both in terms of quirkiness and soul. “Hang On” has both in spades. Of course, it also starts out sounding just like Randy Newman doing ragtime (check the way Toby Leaman sings “Yes, it’s the little things that do us harm”). Then the bridge swaggers in and you’re suddenly thrust into the middle of The Band’s Last Waltz.
It’s how they wear those inspirations on their sleeve that makes them more than just the sum of some really cool record collections. That, and the way they’ve filtered damn near everything that wasn’t nailed down through their own distinct approach and vision here, topping it off with occasional echoes of the new (“The Old Ways”) and backing it up with some truly adventurous writing (“Army of Ancients,” a richly textured waltz whose emotional chorus finds Leaman shouting like John Lennon doing Memphis soul).
Standout Tracks: “Hang On,” “Army of Ancients” A. WATT
