Jeffrey Dallet – Abnormal Oddities (EP)
Jeffrey Dallet – Abnormal Oddities (EP)
SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/jeffrey-dallet/sets/abnormal-oddities-ep
By 1965, the critical and audience consensus was in: Bob Dylan was the undisputed king of the then-modern folk music revolution. Dylan had cultivated an acoustic sound that championed protest, self-awareness and simplicity in its presentation and instrumentation, and that sound was officially a dominating force on both the charts and among music scenes throughout the entire country. This very plain yet deep thinking poet had managed to capture the emotion of an entire generation into some pretty basic songs that were made up of little more than an inspiration, a voice, a guitar and a harmonica when you broke them down. And then he did the unthinkable. At that year’s Newport Folk Festival, the premier event for the heart of Dylan’s following… he went electric. It’s a little anticlimactic in retrospect I suppose, but given the historical context of the culture that Dylan was in the middle of, it was World War III. His core audience felt betrayed by this evolution, this daring progression in his developing style. True fans knew better though, because anyone who knows anything about good art knows that a great artist never stops evolving. Listen to all of Dylan’s stellar catalogue post-1965 if you need proof.
With all of that said, there’s been a lot of evolution in the folk genre since Bob Dylan shook the world in Newport some 53 years ago, and today, his freewheeling, ever-experimenting spirit is being carried on by artists like Denver’s Jeffrey Dallet. Emerging from the heart of America’s Midwestern melting pot, Dallet’s new EP Abnormal Oddities lives up to its name quite substantially, offering a not so typical blend of classic folk minimalism with modern indie rock irreverent stylishness. It’s a thought provoking and at times frustratingly small windows into a new, unfolding leaf in the tree of surrealism, but it’s not something that any casual music fan should feel intimidated by, either.
Take Dallet’s moving ballad “Someday.” In a track that channels the earthiness and stirring wonderment of Colorado’s poet laureate John Denver, Dallet carefully weaves together strings, gentle guitar and an inward looking reflection that when in full focus is as crystal clear as a mountain lake. The yearning and descriptive nature of his vocal parts make the lyrics come to life before our very eyes, transcending the speakers and playing out like a theatrical play live on stage. My only real complaint about Abnormal Oddities concerns the fact that Dallet’s voice is often a little high in the mix for us to be able to fully appreciate the soundscape that he and his band are creating for us. It’s something I’m sure he’ll correct on future recordings, but for now we can still get an idea about what he was going for when he entered the studio to record this slice of indie heaven.
It’s hard to say whether or not Jeffrey Dallet will ever achieve the superstardom that Bob Dylan embraced so bitterly half a century ago, but if it does, we can be confident that someone who has the genuine best interest of his scene’s future is taking the reins.
Mindy McCall