Dream River may be Callahan's most beguiling album yet.
As a portrayal of Bill Callahan by Bill Callahan, Dream River doesn’t chew an inch of scenery; instead it dwells in knowing glances and haunted whispers.
Dream River is probably as evocative a record as Callahan has ever made, and that really is saying a great deal when considering his extensive back catalog.
Dream River is required reading, without a doubt.
There are so many divergent paths to take and so many depths to explore here that multiple listens are a given and implicitly expected. Dream River is as evocative a record as he’s ever made and that’s saying quite a lot.
Musically, Dream River sticks calmly to understated Americana, generally managing to pull off Lambchop’s neat one-inch punch trick – seemingly effortless and gentle, only to echo with far more drama and beautifully powerful resonance.
At its core, this is a record about accepting and even embracing the smallness of human life, and how difficult that can be, given our damnably innate sense of adventure, ambition, and restlessness.
In its strongest moments — though there are no real weak moments to speak of — Dream River presents a compelling, gorgeous sonic world in which to get blissfully lost.
Imagery and music intertwine elegantly on Small Plane and The Sing and if it's not up there with Callahan's very best work, Dream River still runs deep.
The arrangements on Dream River are almost as eloquent as his lyrics.
Here, we hear hints of funk, jazz, Americana and folk – and before you know it, the album’s ingrained itself.
Much like Carver’s collections of short stories, Dream River feels clearly of one piece, though their narratives aren’t explicitly interrelated. They both speak with clarity, never wasting a word. It takes a mature, confident mind to let these thoughts unfurl this easily.
There’s plenty to chew on with his latest, Dream River. And that’s just the lyrics, whose weightiness is given more heft by his controlled baritone.
Dream River flows from one track to the next, with a similarity of tempo that makes it play like eight movements of one 40-minute song. But a few moments stand out.
Callahan’s early work as Smog painted him as a lo-fi sex case, but of late he’s adopted a sweeter, eddying Americana, and ‘Dream River’ takes a turn to lush country-soul.
There is no such thing as a bad moment on Dream River. That being said, I wish that he chose to use a different percussion instrument than bringing back the claves for back-to-back “Summer Painter” and “Seagull”, neither of which use the instrument as well as “The Sing” did.
With Dream River, fans already know what to expect from the man lyrically, and it can't be argued with qualitatively. When you place those lyrics in the context of something so subtly adventurous musically, the result is both engaging and seductive.
A set of eight songs which seems at times like a turn back toward introspection, but which continues to search for striking frames for Callahan’s smooth, unruffled delivery.
Dream River might not leap out at you, but it’s because it’s too cohesive, too flat to live a life outside of the porch of your mind, too bound up in a singularity of gaze to be anything other than what Callahan is preoccupied with at the moment.
With the lightweight numbers up front and the centrepiece dominating the lacklustre cast around it, the album is surely one of the most uneven and unsatisfying in recent memory from Callahan.
It is a great record, at times. But when the elements don’t quite chime it suffers. You’re left with the feeling of treading water, waiting for the whirlpool, waiting for the storm.
While the songs on Dream River aren't what anyone would consider pedestrian, they don't feel particularly daring or weighty (especially after the more serious tone of 2011's Apocalypse).
Another days reaches its end and Bill Calahan shares, generously, his ritual of resting, a ritual that brings the soothing, dream river, right in the middle of the bedroom, transforming the limited space into an open air, folk painting.
Not necessary my favorite from Bill Callahan but Dreams River offers some lovely stripped back but enriched instrumentals alongside some power and beautiful lyrics giving off this warm and introspective feeling for his most easily digestible but yet most relatable lyrics to date.
Track Review
The Sing 8/10
Javelin Unlanding 8.5/10.
Small Plane 7.5/10.
Spring 8.5/10.
Ride My Arrow 7.5/10.
Summer Painter 7/10
Seagull 8/10
Winter Road 7.5/10.
Average: 7.8/10
Another decent Callahan album, what else can be said? While the instrumentation can be derivative of acts like Dylan, there’s enough of a a spin on it to make it stand out on its own.
Standout; the sing
Favs: Seagull, Javelin unlanding, Winter road, Ride my arrow
Least fav: Small plane
tender and passionate, but lacking in substance like a cigarette.
fav tracks: javelin unlanding
Rootsy instrumentation that takes me into nature, really feels like the Walden of albums. Thematically drawing on themes of travel, flight, and destination, the poetic lyricism and intimate folk Americana give the observational simplicity its potency.
1 | The Sing 4:31 | 76 |
2 | Javelin Unlanding 3:48 | 81 |
3 | Small Plane 3:56 | 77 |
4 | Spring 5:10 | 75 |
5 | Ride My Arrow 5:03 | 72 |
6 | Summer Painter 6:30 | 74 |
7 | Seagull 5:39 | 68 |
8 | Winter Road 5:29 | 76 |
#1 | / | MOJO |
#7 | / | Uncut |
#7 | / | Urban Outfitters |
#11 | / | American Songwriter |
#16 | / | Crack Magazine |
#16 | / | Pitchfork |
#20 | / | MAGNET |
#24 | / | Stereogum |
#27 | / | Paste |
#27 | / | Q Magazine |