Eugh. Just look at those publicity shots. Dylan Champagne has been crafted to look like the most smug man on the planet. His fighting stance on the left is just inviting you to hit him. With photos like those, an album called “Love Songs of the Apocalypse Volume 1″ and a bandcamp blurb that describes the record as “a shout-out to all the ghosts haunting the mid-sized semi-urban dystopia in my head”, I fully expected to hate Champagne’s music, knowing that I already hated him.
Well, I was wrong. The opening guitar part of “Greenfield Manifesto”, the album’s lead single, and accompanying faint strings have an inviting mystery to them, and any thoughts that Dylan’s work might be smarmy or insincere disappear as soon as his voice kicks in. This is a tender, affecting song in which we learn of childhood trials and tribulations, of bullies who made Dylan cry “like a front-yard dog, all chained up and halfway starved”. The chant of “la la la”, which might be celebratory in a very different song, is perfectly doleful here. Consider me disarmed.
There’s more than just acoustic folk on this album: “The Daily Albatross”, “Finally Ready” and “The Ballad Of J. Flato” all feature ragged but driving guitar parts that make sense of Dylan tagging his music as prog-punk. The songs are strongest, though, when their focus is lyrical. Dylan is full of self-deprecating witticisms, bemoaning “living his life in parantheticals” and saying he’s “no livewire… just a filament”.
This is insecure self-reflection made listenable and even uplifting, stirring similar emotions to Arcade Fire‘s Neon Bible. Now, let’s get this man some good PR and do away with that terrible first impression. And if that’s just how Dylan always dresses, well, my bad.
You can download “Greenfield Manifesto” and “California Song” below, and ead over to Dylan’s bandcamp page to stream the whole album or buy it for $5 [or more, you generous thing].
Connect with Dylan Champagne: Myspace | Facebook | Bandcamp
Dylan Champagne – “Greenfield Manifesto”
Dylan Champagne – “California Song”
