Steve Gunn
Daylight Daylight
I just can’t help but make fun of lethargic, precious, and gentle music. I don’t want my music to be loud all the time, but the adoration of “quiet” music is definitely a cult. It’s like that Portlandia sketch with the Battle of the Quiet Bands. I just don’t have patience for that shit, but then I hear Steve Gunn and I go into some serious doubt. His music is definitely in a more serene category, but I don’t know, I just love the way he composes and arranges his music. I became a fan of Gunn’s with Other You and thought it was a one time thing, but now listening to Daylight Daylight, I think this man let the genie out of its bottle. It’s a collection of songs reminding me of the beauty of melodies and words. Sounds redundant? Maybe so, but few artists can make this kind of music and sound disingenuous. Daylight Daylight does just that on a cold Winter day, whether it’s bringing loons to my attention or being carried by the guitar picking. Sometimes both. Daylight Daylight is an absolute beauty of an album that contains multitudes. It’s everything in a neat little package.
Daylight Daylight isn’t an album that you absorb, because it’s instantly warm, cozy, and familiar. It’s an album that you submerge yourself into. You take a bath in this album for 45 minutes. What you get in Daylight Daylight are symphonies, ballads, folk songs, meditations, and downright celestial-sounding expressions. There is not a moment here that isn’t a gorgeous soundscape of guitars, harmonies, synthesizers, or vocals that function to immerse the listener. It’s also impossible to nail down the tone of this record. It’s sad, sweet, tender, funny, hopeful, playful, and intense all at once. It carries all emotions, and does so much in songs that are deceptively simple sounding in their craft.
You shouldn’t be bogged down by formats when approaching an album like this, but we’re going to argue for the vinyl version, because that’s what we do, because it’s becoming an unsustainable format that might become inaccessible to independent artist, and because, of course, it sounds oh-so sweet. It’s a beautiful package for such a beautiful record, all you need is that crackle of the record like a campfire.
With Daylight Daylight, Steve Gunn continues to do what most artists hope to make, but never do. It sounds unlike anything else (does anyone sound like Steve Gunn?), it taps into the deepest human emotions, it takes a hold, lifts us up, and makes you happy to be alive. It also manages to be cool while it’s doing it. I don’t know, but has Steve Gunn put a spell on me?
Get it from No Quarter Records.
photo: @djsvenhelwig
