Daughn Gibson‘s Me Moan is ‘a soundtrack to a journey through middle America’ Niall McGuirk would not like to take.
This is the 2nd album from Josh Martin under the monicker Daughn Gibson. He takes baritone vocals to a lower level. In much the same way as Andrew Eldridge did with Sisters Of Mercy, Gibson gets that tone down as low as possible. Where Sisters of Mercy were all dark and goth however Gibson adds more colour. I’ve given it the obligatory double figure chance and still find it as annoying as I do good. Just as Chris Rea might jump out at me and I start to sweat, some Alt Country lick kicks in and calms me down. “The Right Signs” has that Nick Cave-esque feel, but it’s predecessor “Won’t You Climb” has an awful middle of the road feel.
His vocals work as en extra instrument to a record that moves arond from Goth Country to Goth Disco to alt country to just plain country, and then disco – kind of. It’s hard to pin Daughn Gibson down to a certain sound. I would usually rejoice in such diversity, when they are different sounds that I enjoy. It feels like there’s too many variants, it’s a collection of sounds that don’t mix together.
Lyrically there is a sadness throughout that pays reference to love, life and loss. Something we all go through. This is not a statement of where we have been left as a society with the effects of austere policies; there is no statement on how 6,000 children under 5 die every day from malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea – this is a baring of Josh Martin’s soul as these 11 tracks open up to writer to the reader.
Me Moan is like a soundtrack to a journey through middle America. Not a journey I would revel in. Close your eyes whilst listening and you can feel the open top cadillac driving, wide open roads, wind swept long hair. But, it’s not solely the route 66 image of a Cadillac on a wide open road. It is one that twist and turns and travels through isolated towns. The soundtrack to a village that has been disappeared, a place where cowboys once ran rampant. The layered country feel of “The Pisgee Nest” could have tumbleweed going through those steel guitar notes. “You Don’t Fade” and “Franco” are similar sounds – country but solitude and lofi, and the abrubt ending to Franco will make all DJ’s squirm in their seats. It just stops, ends just like
