Valaska is the project of Dave Valdez, an American singer songwriter whose battered but somehow beautiful voice recalls the fragile wonder of Elliot Smith and whose music taps into that same vein of inspirational Americana that also stands behind the work of the Eels, Phosphorescent and Beck. This is raw indie, redolent of dimly lit evenings in untidy home studios surrounded by half empty cans of beer and the detritus of recording and, like the Eels, despite hints of melancholy, the overall feeling is one of hope rather than despair, making this a fine record to kick back with.
Opening with the stripped down acoustic work of ‘on the surface’, the album wrong foots you with its desolate folky sound, Dave’s voice loosely multi-tracked over the most skeletal of musical backdrops. It suggests an album of quietly contemplative tunes, only for the brisk rhythm of ‘Spanish needles’ to bring the sun out with its languid slide guitar recalling the Eels covering ‘meddle’-era Pink Floyd with the Flaming Lips and Paul Simon in tow. It’s a delightfully laid back tune with enough ambient flourishes to draw it from the realms of the commonplace to something rather more special, whilst Dave’s lyrics are intelligently written and delivered with a slightly dusty tunefulness that perfectly matches the music. ‘Hammer and nails’ has a beautiful picked guitar line and a gentle groove underpins it that is pure, vintage Eels (think ‘beautiful freak’), whilst over the course of the song’s three and a half minutes everything from Mellotron to handclaps is thrown at the mix making it sound more like a musical celebration than a simple song. ‘Golden age’ sees Dave pull out his Ukulele for a weird, slightly trippy tune that drifts languidly from the speakers like the last rays of the sun beaming out from the gathering gloom of dusk. It’s uplifting and rather lovely.
Winning in the stakes of misleading titles, ‘war and peace’ takes its name from an epic novel despite being a mere four minutes in length and takes its cue from vintage Genesis (‘foxtrot’) only with E providing the vocals instead of Peter Gabriel. ‘Wildfire’, in contrast, has a more driven feel with its synth strings, steady beat and piano gloriously crossbreeding Ben Folds Five with Sonic Youth at their most gentle and Sebadoh. Of all the songs here, this one is the one that sounds most like a single with its catchy chorus and gentle melancholy, and it proves to be most memorable and strangely addictive. ‘In voids’ has a bluesy feel that brings to mind Eric Clapton’s most recent outing, ‘old sock’, with its warm, end of the road feel and lyrical references to daydreaming whilst the title track (the longest effort here) returns to the stripped down feel of Elliot Smith, Dave simply multi-tracking his vocal to add depth to an otherwise naked composition, before bringing in drums and even a horn section for a melody line that is liable to move even the stoniest of hearts. The album closes with ‘bijou’, an acoustic lament that tugs gently at the heart strings before slowly dispersing in the wind.
Whilst Valaska treads little ground that has not been explored before, it is still an admirably naked and beautifully written record which, in these days of excessive production and digital airbrushing, sounds utterly honest and compellingly refreshing in a way that so few releases manage. Referencing a wide array of indie artists, ‘natural habitat’ is a dusty, dusky slice of American indie/folk/rock that taps into the sand strewn highways of the country’s vast open spaces to produce the perfect soundtrack to a lazy day. Gently melancholy, but, crucially, never depressing, ‘natural habitat’ is an album that generously repays patient listening and which will undoubtedly be one that people will return to often.
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