An adventurous and experimental release which fans of Bonnie Raitt and Little Feat will revel in.
Genre lines are often blurry, and on “Dog Ear” Canada’s The Bros. Landreth do their bit to muddy the waters further still, fusing picked blues, deep soul, funk and old-fashioned and new-fangled R’n’B.
The opener ‘Sunrise, Sunset’ starts off in sparse, finger-picked blues territory, albeit with major-key soulfulness, as opposed to minor-key melancholy. It’s immediately juxtaposed with the grungy and funky roadhouse blues of ‘I’ll drive’, which utilises the common trope of the highway as escape – one for the booty shaking rather than the cerebellum, but smoothly produced and dynamic in sound.
‘Half of me’ shifts back into a calmer Philly soul area and once you hear it, you can’t unhear it – it has a hook that is reminiscent of ‘Have yourself a merry little Christmas…’ ’Vincent’, on the other hand, is a radio-friendly and very polished hum-along paean to stagnating character – albeit in simpler and catchier mass-audience-friendly form.
‘Half Moon Eyes’ slaps back into the land of harmony-topped southern blues. It’s not surprising that Bonnie Raitt found a vein to mine in their back catalogue, covering their ‘Made up my mind’ and here she’s returning the favour by providing duet/backing vocals on this track, hewn from similar influences and feel.
Mid-point on the album is ‘Tumbling Wild’, the least conventional – and perhaps most interesting – track on the album, using as it does a hypnotic kick drum, sparse, fuzzy guitar, and Morricone-like percussion to frame the song. Title track ‘Dog Ear’ follows and adopts an even more sparse approach, using a drone-like pad and intermittent percussion, guitar, and keys. Also, a case of less is more, as the vocal and the harmony are pushed front and centre.
With a title like ‘Knuckles’, the expectation was one of something grungy and bluesy, but no – it’s a jazzy and soulful piece of introspection with some lovely descending guitar figures. Again, Bonnie Raitt guests, much more to the fore than on ‘Half Moon Eyes’, and her presence adds a welcome and slightly more caustic edge to the vocal mix.
‘Let me down easy’ – there have been several songs by a variety of acts with this title, but this one is very much their own. It verges on softer Eagles territory and is quite west coast USA in feel and time. ‘Wide awake and dreaming’ ploughs a similar furrow – think of the more laid-back moments of Little Feat and you won’t be too far out.
The album closes with ‘Strange Dear’, a ghostly ballad with a largely fixed heartbeat tempo that fractures and stutters towards the end. Like ‘Tumbling Wild’, it’s the moments when the album becomes more sonically adventurous that raise the attention of the inquisitive listener.
Fans of Bonnie Raitt and Little Feat will revel in this. How much it will resonate outside of those with such tastes might be open to debate, but all credit to the band for the more adventurous and experimental moments on the release.
