GUS BLACK
Autumn Days
Cheap Lullaby Records
· Sweet melodies, simple lyrics and solidly constructed songs make Gus Black’s fourth studio album well worth listening to.
On his fourth record, Autumn Days, Gus Black is both darkly dramatic and airily mellow. Like the season the record is named for, Autumn Days boasts a harvest of emotion and harmonious melodies, with the simply told tales of life, nature and love strewn throughout. It’s happy, sullen and touchingly pleasant.
Black’s melodiously tender and moving voice takes his songs to a profound place – a place where "You are my Sunshine," the hidden song on the album, captures the aura of the most insightful and heartbreaking song you’ve ever heard.
Autumn Days is a little less uptempo and vehement than his last record, Uncivilized Love, but has a stunning grace and glide to it. The sweepingly layered music in songs like "Long Beach (It’s a Miracle)" and "3234 Imbecile" is reminiscent of certain Coldplay ditties, while the charming and folky, "So Very Young," could have been written by James Taylor himself.
"Certain Kind of Light" is an exciting and passionate song, full of haunting twists and turns. "Fire Escape" is the most pop-sounding track on the album, but Black lets his sweet voice soar high above the catchy melody.
All in all, Autumn Days is a great record – one you can listen to from beginning to end without boredom. Black is simplistic yet profound, and though the music is stripped down at times, it reaches beautiful heights and comes off without any of the overly jaded and clinically depressed clichés that sometimes plague musicians in the indie-folk-rock genre.
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