On Daughn Gibson’s new album, Me Moan, he is the tallest, darkest cowboy ever born along the highway side. Here, he takes his electronic country blues sound down new paths, reaching cosmic country soul levels. It’s throwback feel through modern ears, like uncovering ancient secrets and incorporating them into an avant-garde performance art installation in the New Museum.
Gibson knows how to paint a lyrical picture, crafting stories and vivid scenes that sound like a black and white film, but with this glowing trance quality. On this latest release he shows an impressive range of storytelling, and the way he tells it. Often, little touches make the biggest difference, like on “Mad Ocean,” the rhythm of that tambourine is just ace. Just like the rest of the composition. The things you least expect, like a bagpipe solo melding into a brisk marching drum cadence make the album fresh, compelling, and a bit farcical.
At times Gibson’s drawl is super affected, like in the downtempo album peak “Franco,” but then he slow-croons lines like, “If you need my love, let it go through you all the way in.” I laughed, and then I swooned. In “Won’t You Climb,” he drops random tiny details like “I was kicking acorns all along the roadside,” that come off as more personal glimpses than into the character he’s assuming. And then he switches melodies between an 80s new wave riff, and a dark country R&B, and it’s completely clever. Gibson also shows his electro prowess in “You Don’t Fade,” which pivots into Depeche Mode on the lam.
He tends to speak as an alter persona, but often with relatable wisdom. “The Right Signs” starts really intense, with insect clicking and then Gibson’s over-drawling, resonating vocals singing about how when we really want something to happen a certain way, we look for every possible sign that what we want is right and will happen. It’s a dual with one’s own mind. Then on “Kissin on the Blacktop,” he employs a skewed two step, with a clicking percussion track reminiscent of Lebanese bally dance music. This slows down into “All My Days Off,” with the highest vocal range he’s explored yet on the album. What incredible pitch he has. He could be an opera singer if he wanted to be. But instead, he mixes his influences of country, horror, and Led Zeppelin into brilliant composition and intense tales that expand into more directions than just a linear line. After all, the highway can be an incredibly winding road.
Me Moan comes out July 9th on Subpop and Daughn Gibson has summer tour dates listed on his Facebook
Top Photo By Adam Wallacavage
