Unfortunately, popular music favors machismo. From country to hip-hop, a universal coping system has emerged. Confronting life’s problems is best done with a fist or gun. Relationships are punishing lapses of fortitude. And looking after no. 1 is sacrosanct.
In more ambiguous genres, like alternative, peddlers of pretention leave volcano-sized voids from entertaining lyrical urges dwelling on absurdist surrealism. For the rest of us, life’s beautiful complexities—the meat and drink of introspection—go unaddressed.
The good news: Atlanta band Besides Daniel is a shining anomaly. From the first pleasant chimes of opening track “The Field” on the band's EP, one gains a warm feeling of benevolence, like a child wrapped in a blanket of comfort. The remainder of five-track EP “The Clay, The Seed, The Stone” wonderfully rings in the same vein.
In this world there are only smiling faces, freely prancing up flowered paths leading to nowhere. It’s that sense of safety and freedom which makes the listener’s imagination tingle. Truly, the vocals of singer-songwriter Danny Brewer and Susanne O’Day have a cathartic power. The late Elliot Smith moved his music with similarly enchanting, haunting waves, and it comes as no surprise that he influenced Brewer.
The sheer perpetuation of spreading love is iconoclastic these days and duly at odds with even the folk-alternative scene. "Peace is a comin'" is the closest thing to antagonism one finds on the EP. But its near-whispered delivery and orchestral backing feel like a fairytale rather than decried finger-pointing. As the last words, "And you won't have to fight anymore" roll from their lips, the track and record end, leaving one touched yet yearning for more.
Rare moments like these are the true mark of accomplished work.
Apart from the nucleus of Brewer (acoustic guitar, vocals) and O’Day (vocals, piano) the band can include more than three other members, depending on the sound they’re going for. The EP sleeve has one of the lengthiest “our thanks to” tributes one could imagine.
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