[MUSIC REVIEW] Waiting On A Song (2017) by Dan Auerbach

steemswede (70)in #music • 9 years ago (edited)

It was eight years since Dan Auerbach released his first solo album Keep It Hid. One of the greatest albums of 2009 in my opinion. Since then he has released three albums with his band The Black Keys and one album with The Arcs. He has also produced many artists, among them Dr. John and Nikki Lane.

On a more personal level, Auerbach has moved from Akron, OH to Nashville; a move that is apparent in the way his new album Waiting On A Song sounds. He wrote seven of the songs together with country legend John Prine. The equally legendary Elvis guitarist Duane Eddy visits in Livin' in Sin and the cinematic King of a One Horse Town. Mark Knopfler contributes with his unique guitar sound on the happy pill that is Shine on Me.

The album sounds typically Auerbach, while it at the same time has the classic Nashville sound together with early 70's melodic radio pop and big orchestra Philly soul. Auerbach and Prine wrote about 60 songs last summer, of which 10 survived to be featured on the album. It's 10 little songs that range from just under two and a half minutes to as long as three minutes and forty-six seconds. It will take no more than 32 minutes to listen through it all. Dan Auerbach appears to be in a constant creative ecstasy, where inspiration flows easily and freely and where music is born in the moment and requires minimal effort to be birthed. It's probably just as it seems though, at least if we're to believe the lyrics in the opening track Waiting For a Song: "Songs don't grow on trees".

To conclude, solid and classic craftsmanship where the soundscape is authentically 70's but the lyrics at times feel somewhat clichéd and impersonal. At any rate, a must-hear album that evokes happy and summery feelings.