Monday, July 30, 2012

Daughn Gibson - All Hell

I've listened to All Hell a few times through now, and haven't fully made up my mind about it yet. On the one hand, it's appealing - Gibson's country-noiry vignettes sliced up by some anachronistically modern electro-pop textures, underpinned by his smooth baritone, which variously calls to mind Johnny Cash, Stephin Merritt and Matt Berninger - but on the other, it can feel a bit much about the concept, and not enough about the songs themselves. Still, at the very least  interesting, and on a few tracks genuinely compelling ("A Young Girl's World" and "In The Beginning" are stand-outs, as is the croony "Rain on a Highway").