Sam Evian
Dive
Flying Cloud/Thirty Tigers
March 25, 2024
Web Exclusive
The mid-80s were action-verb-titled albums with INXS KickThe Human League's Conflictand the darker Van Dyke Parks' Jump!. In addition to sharing the call to move, Sam Evian's fourth solo album, Dive, has little in common with the aforementioned albums. After 2021 more synth forward Time to meltEvian cleverly pulls back into the guitar-dominant sounds of 2018 You foreverwhich if you haven't heard is one of the tightest guitar albums of the last decade.
The most obvious touchstone for DiveGeorge Harrison's winning melodic formula is George Harrison's solo work outside of the Beatles and as the fictional Nelson Wilbury, who wrote the featured three singles on Traveling Wilbury. The second song here, “Jacket,” filters Harrison's “End of the Line” through the Beatles' “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” antics, thanks to the “oohs” and “aahs” provided by Hannah Cohen and Megan Louie. And the closing 'Stay', with its flowing guitar lines, would have easily stuck to Harrison's Living in the Material World.
DiveIts title refers to the daily “polar plunges” Evian took while recording the album, but thematically the record explores his parents' relationship again and again through their eyes. The opening track, “Wild Days,” with its fully perched guitars, juxtaposes a lover's departure (“my baby don't know why I'm gone”) with a yearning to return (“all my heart beats for another try” ). While the previously mentioned closers show reconciliation and acceptance (“I want you to stay here, next to me”).
Evian is so well known for his production and technical assistance (sometimes working under his real name, Owens) for artists such as Big Thief and Palehound. Here, Adrianne Lenker and El Kempner, respectively, return the favor. Lenker with the album's heaviest guitar solo on “Why Does It Take So Long” and Kempner on “Another Way,” which features a flurry of bent and broken notes as they intertwine with Evian's own guitar work. One of the most infectious tracks here, it's a shame that “Another Way” has the shortest running time on the record. The song's abrupt ending could have benefited from the extended treatment that “Health Machine” received. You forever.
There are subtle shifts in approaches that make every piece here worth exploring. The very romantic “Rollin' In” shares Richard Hawley's watery imagery Lady's Bridge. And the groove-filled “Freakz” showcases Evian's fancier tendencies. Blessed with tight writing, confident melodies and an all-star cast of musicians, Dive worth entering. That his parents' story has a happy ending is the all-too-rare outcome of what indie rock has to offer at its most emotionally charged. (www.samevian.com)
Author Rating: 8/10
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