My Dead Air – The Thief Who Knows My Name

By Ryan G

Words: Ryan Getz

Until June is important to me because in spite of my limited time spent with the band, they released two singles that helped to define my collegiate years. “Sleepless” became part of my soundtrack to autumn during my time at Wheaton College, and “The Man Who Lost His Soul” ushered in the first summer home from college. So, hearing that the vocalist for this adult contemporary leaning had a new project definitely got my attention.

My Dead Air, in spite of its freshness, carries a hint of nostalgia. Whether this is psychology connected to those Until June songs I connected so strongly with, I’m not sure. But My Dead Air definitely ain’t dead! There’s a serenity that carries throughout the druation of The Thief Who Knows My Name, and it isn’t the false serenity that George Costanza’s father champions when he yells “Serenity now!”

The music is atmospheric but not ethereal. Pensive but yet not sad. As I was typing this review in a coffee shop an ambulance rolled up to an apartment building across the street and I saw an older gentleman get wheeled out on a stretcher. I was left to ponder the fragility of human life, and I found myself wondering about the family’s story.

That’s what this record does. Tells stories and leaves you to ponder them. Or, perhaps, lull you into a trance where you think of your own story. The album even has strategically placed interludes to just leave you thinking.

This is an album best listened to in order. The placement of “Blond Hair Black Coat” after “A Part of Me” is sublime. The lush chords that emerge in the first few notes of the former is a gentle rousing from the trance that “A Part of Me” leaves you in, to lull you into a slightly more optimistic sounding, yet equally thoughtful plane. “Fractured (They Will Regret)” indeed communicates a sense of longing and regret, yet not in an overly melodramatic. “Goodnight, goodnight my lover; can we begin again?” is a question that is left hanging to a degree in the refrain.

I suppose this music could be classified as dreamy folk music. The percussion is minimal, and I can’t tell how much of what I hear is synth and how much is just acoustic instruments with a lot of reverb added in production. The effect is very down to earth, though – not ethereal, like I said before.

My Dead Air is certainly a pleasant surprise discovery for this writer, and this could be a darkhorse debut for 2015.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/217085331″  /]

Score: 4.3/5

My Dead Air: Facebook | iTunes

 

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