Backstroke

Every morning, Detroit tech-house artist Matthew Dear has to wake up to the painful realization that, for the rest of his career, he might never again release anything as good as "Dog Days". This is hardly a slight to Dear-- "Dog Days" just happens to be one of the most irresistible house numbers to come out in years, and the song casts a long, pitch-black shadow over the rest of his work. Even Dear's 2003 solid debut LP, Leave Luck to Heaven, which tried to keep "Dog Days" tucked away until the sixth track, ultimately suffered from this emergent disparity.