Delta Spirit definitely made a fan out of me in 2008 with Ode to Sunshine, with all its melodic racket, gritty embrace, and airtight songwriting. I remember listening to that album over and over, and finding new things it said that squeezed the air out of me...almost as though the infectious beats that kept the pace had to bring me along so I wouldn't be stopped in my tracks completely by the revelations that record caused.
And it's been too long without a follow up to sink into.
Which is why I'm so happy they're giving us the June 8 release of History from Below, an album that digs down even deeper with the rootsy gumption that Ode to Sunshine did.
This album doesn't polish up and shine. It's a faded, favorite tshirt that you just didn't know you had. It wears so comfortably that I'm frankly, albeit irrationally, surprised I haven't heard it before. The content of it is the accessible stuff of regret and aching loss and of big old pity parties with yourself, the bottle, and some biting honesty. It's familiar and new at the same time.
Take the song that keeps bringing me back, "Scarecrow." Neighbors chat in a distant reality as though the intro is heard through your closed eyelids and open ears. Birds chirp and you can hear wheels crunch over loose gravel like you're lying in golden sun hours with your eyes closed while Matthew Vasquez reclines against a worn and waving willow tree while he sings this heartbreaking tale of attachment and loss and the fading of people and love. And he does it with the baffling lightness of touch of the blues so you might want to be sipping lemonade with your feet in a cool brook during the whole thing. While weeping.
Oh scarecrow
You know why I'm asleep?
All the weight you bear you cannot carry me
You know you're just like your mother
And your bag all packed to go
And you hid your heart from everyone you know
You say you'd never love another
Unless they bore your own name
Oh your kin, they trample on you just the same
Oh I gave my love to a harlot I'm told
And the blackness of a scarecrow no one knows
Well I'm red in the blood that I have drained
That I wasted in a rain
Well your love that takes your picture
And your love that worships you
Well if you can't see it then soon you will
And you frequent the same stripclub
You love to watch the ladies dance
Well you always knew I don't do shit like that
While I was out in Scotland
You were out with him
And he took your shot and you threw up your limbs
Well I gave my love to a harlot I'm told
And the blackness of a scarecrow you cannot hold
Well I'm red in the blood that I have drained
That I wasted in a rain
Well you deserve applause for splitting me in two
Well I count you on the list of a mortal few
Well I hope that you were happy
I could only wish you the best
But your beauty vacant setting in the west
And this may just say redundant because you've chosen your own fate
Was I more to you than just a pretty face
Well I'll give my love to a harlot I will
And the blackness of a scarecrow you cannot kill
Well I'm red in the blood that I have drained
That I wasted waiting for rain
Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io
Have a listen to their gem of a single, "Bushwick Blues" while you're at it. It shows the more punchy, feedback laden, vast Delta Spirit that I know you have been craving. I just get killed by the line;
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