David Vandervelde is back under the shade of your ears one more time with “One More Time.” The straightforward slow dance is one of ten off his third full length – and first since 2008 – Shadow Sides. A recording that finds Vandervelde using a Tascam 246 Portastudio four-track cassette recorder for Shadow Sides entirety.
As stated above, Shadow Sides caps a six year hiatus that found Vandervelde losing friend, mentor, and frequent collaborator Jay Bennett (of Wilco), troubled with addiction, and on the wrong end of a five year marriage (foreshadowing of the latter is a major theme throughout the album). Picking up where two well-received records laid, Vandervelde stands longing, selfish, stuck with his back to any darkness – a willfully bright ignorance complement to the bright reverb brought on by his use of analog edit-free mixes.
Simple vocal repetition is heavily used in some of Shadow Sides best moments. “More Than God” and “One More Time” find Vandervelde chanting “I love you more than God” and “let me make love to you one more time,” respectively, right out of the gate. But while “More Than God” seems to boast a smile, if not tongue-in-check, “One More Time” isn’t so much asking, but digging up one last plea. Putting it briefly, the dude knows how to make a stomach sink.
Shadow Sides is out September 9 via Park the Van (Vinyl), Secretly Canadian (Digital), and Burger Records (Cassette). Vandervelde doesn’t have any plans to take his house band on tour yet, but you can find him playing guitar, keys, and singing with Father John Misty in 2015.
• David Vandervelde: https://twitter.com/dvandervelde
• Park the Van: http://www.parkthevan.com
• Secretly Canadian: http://www.secretlycanadian.com
• Burger Records: http://www.burgerrecords.org
More about: David Vandervelde
