MARK DAVIS
Don’t You Think We Should Be Closer?
Saved by Radio
MARK DAVIS
Mistakes I Meant to Make
Saved by Radio
· Two new discs from half the songwriting duo of Edmonton’s Old Reliable on Calgary’s readily reliable record label.
Fans of Old Reliable (OR) will already be familiar with Mark Davis as a songwriter of substance and with his ability to carefully meld personal vision and meticulous craftsmanship. These two discs further expound on the themes of sorrow, pain and loss first explored on OR’s The Gradual Moment (2001). Don’t You Think We Should be Closer is a fully produced studio creation featuring Davis’s OR mates plus notable guest spots including Robin Hunter’s ever impressive guitar, Romi Mayes’s smoke and bourbon vocals and Darrek Anderson’s soul stirring pedal steel.
The tasteful, subdued arrangements could only be considered lush in comparison to Mistakes I Meant to Make wherein the songs are stripped to their stark, naked cores. Thematically, it’s heavy stuff, but somehow the songs manage to rise above their potential bleakness with strength, dignity and a compelling humanity. The writing is consistently strong throughout both discs but the more minimal approach of Mistakes allows the songs to stand more resolute in their solitude where they cut even deeper and closer to the bone.
These songs are sorrowful, sad and extremely powerful, as profound and moving as anything I’ve heard in the past few years. From a critical perspective, though, it’s readily apparent that a brilliant single disc could have been distilled from the 20 tracks contained on these two, especially from someone so committed to the whole less-is-more ethos. One suspects Davis has a lot more of these songs filed away on the therapeutic/medicinal shelf, quietly stacked between the sleep-aids and near-empty bottles of whisky.
DON’T YOU THINK WE SHOULD BE CLOSER? 3/5
MISTAKES I MEANT TO MAKE 4/5
MD STEWART
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