A concise yet thoughtful record that displays a lighter side to life.
Dennis Ellsworth is a Canadian artist with a long career as a songwriter, performer and producer. Shaped by an eclectic taste in music, his own work varies in style. For his latest solo album Living he credits the influence of 60s soul, but there is much more to unpack. A more modern approach is certainly taken on tracks that can easily be imagined produced in a classic fashion. Ellsworth doesn’t shy away from the use of sound effects and sampling, although it’s his mellow vocal delivery and whimsical tendencies —strongly evocative of Paul McCartney’s late-career solo work— that characterise the record’s sonic palette.
The album’s first single Every Second, Every Day is described an expression of love towards his family. The lyrics loop around the idea of the joy of a life that’s shared, in which no moment seems wasted no matter what else may be happening in life. The song’s pop sensibility pairs well with the feel-good idea at its core, but its sound is deceptively simple. Bolstered by a catchy chorus and soulful melody, Ellsworth takes the opportunity to experiment with different sound as the song progresses.
Another standout track is Sundried Daisies, inspired by a real experience on a summer day back during the times of Covid. Ellsworth explains:
“My wife and daughter picked a bouquet of daisies and they were displayed in the front window of the car, resting on the dash. Over the course of the summer, they slowly wilted and dried out. By the end of the summer, on this beautiful September day, it occurred to me that these daisies represented our summer and all the beautiful places we went or things we spent our time doing.”
The song is about realisation, a brief moment of self-reflection in which the impermanence of things heightens the sense of living, an idea that spills into the rest of the record. What’s interesting about this anecdote is the positive light in which a symbol that for some might represent the end of something good, instead elicits gratefulness at the fact it existed in the first place. Like this moment, the album is an expression of a man (mostly) at peace with life, and this serenity is passed on to the listener, who can delight in its laid-back atmosphere in which the lyrics seem to float by. In Sundried Daisies we also get a first taste of the recurring backing vocals, which bring a homely feeling and stave off the hints of loneliness that threaten to encroach the mix in the album’s most wistful songs.
