20th
PropertyOfZack Review : : Kevin Devine
I wrote this.
It would seem Kevin Devine had some foresight in the timing of the release of his sixth studio album, Between the Concrete & Clouds, as the record would pair sublimely with an autumn-leaf environed car ride. The album is, for the most part, a straight-ahead, atmospheric and deliberately cool composition that definitely stands out as one of the more relaxed and mood-oriented “Super Tuesday” (the industry term for the slew of albums put out on the second Tuesday of September) releases.
Devine starts in with “Off-Screen,” which is based around a central riff and some pleasantly under-produced percussion, gradually ramping up the energy throughout the tune. He builds the song itself around a I-IV chord progression, which is the basis of a traditional blues progression; we’re reminded from the start that Devine carries with him a great deal of country/western/blues influences, traits of his songs that could last be noted on his She Stayed As Steam EP (see: “Big Bad Man”). These bluesy tenets seem to follow Devine through the record, showing up in the form of clearly purposed old-timey guitar tones and cutesy turnaround licks (see: “Sleepwalking Through My Life”). What becomes immediately noticeable by the end of the first tune is that Devine’s music has gotten bigger in terms of both production and overall sound; this record was his first full-length to be recorded with a backing band, and the production speaks for itself throughout.
Moving through the record, we come to the second track, “The First Hit,” which begins with an astute, pseudo-biblical metaphor and continues with some markedly smart vocal layering, which on this track and on the entire record adds a flashy element to Devine’s at times unremarkable voice. Afterward, we have “Sleepwalking Through My Life,” a simple and sweetly winding waltz that finds KD channeling Hank Williams with some decidedly honky-tonk undertones.
