William DuVall – One Alone Album Review

There’s no question that William DuVall, in his role in Alice in Chains, has much to offer – a cursory glance at his storied past will tell you that. However, the reality of entering into a band with an established sound is that you can only alter the template so far. As such, it is easy to overlook his skills, not only as a singer, but as a guitarist, with the result that few who have discovered him via AiC have had the opportunity to recognise quite the breadth and depth of his influences as a musician. Played, as the title implies, entirely solo, One Alone is an artist bravely stepping away from the comfort of the pack, baring himself before his audience, scars and all. It flies in the face of contemporary musical wisdom where more always seems to equate to more, and the stripped-down approach is not only welcome from that wider perspective, but also in the sense that William is one of those rare musicians who can make you forget you’re only hearing guitar and voice, the force of his personality and the power of his performance filling out the sound and tricking the listener into thinking there’s far more going on than there actually is.

Opening with the Appalachian beauty of Til The Light Guides Me Home, a short, sweet opener that sees William deploy a vocal that recalls a young Warren Haynes, it is initially strange to hear a voice so familiar shorn of those minor key harmonies that define his day job. With a simple guitar figure, sensitively played on the acoustic guitar, Til The Light Guides Me Home is a lovely opener and it sets the tone perfectly. It passes the torch to The Veil Of All My Fears, a track that could easily sit amidst AiC’s catalogue. Lyrically and musically it’s an affecting song, William pushing the needle into the red as he employs a harder vocal on the chorus, a subtle layer of distortion washing over the vocals before everything is dialled back down for a subtle, wordless coda. A dark, minor-key piece, The 3 Wishes is surprisingly heavy for an acoustic track, capturing the vibe of the original Comes With The Fall piece from which it is drawn (thanks to Oliver, who caught an error in the original review and commented with a link to the video below), William driving his acoustic hard and delivering a vocal performance that sets the hairs on the back of the neck on edge. In contrast, Strung Out On A Dream is a bluesier number, caught somewhere between Jeff Buckley and James Dean Bradfield, as William sings directly to the song’s subject. Based around a sprightly riff, White Hot is a powerful number that steps still further from the AiC sound, William opting for a powerful classic rock feel that further cements the notion that a collaboration between William and the Manic Street preachers would be something to behold indeed.  

Opening up the album’s second side, the wintry Still Got A Hold On My Heart finds William in a particularly reflective mood, the descending guitar figure and raw vocal imbued with the spirit of Led Zeppelin as he delivers a towering performance that draws all eyes upon him. The call of Alice in Chains is strong on Smoke And Mirrors, a piece of minor-key beauty that would easily sit amidst the Jar of flies track list. The nimble guitar work of So Cruel constantly shifts under the listener’s feet, although the vocal melody and memorable chorus suggest it would make a fine single if William felt so motivated. With a name that surely encourages a number of interpretations, Chains Around My Heart is a surprisingly tender ballad with a soulful underpinning that showcases a different side to William’s voice and you once again find yourself wondering at how varied an album comprising just a man and his guitar can be. With the album coming to a close, the Bluesy Keep Driving Me Away is awash with seething doubts as a relationship succumbs to the pressures of a scattered life, only to dissolve into the sort of sweet, McCartney-esque coda that the Beatles would often use to diffuse the harsher realities of Lennon’s world. The final piece, No Need to Wonder, draws the album nicely to a close, a late-night lullaby that sees William save his best vocal for last as he deftly moves from softly soulful to a soaring wail that recalls Chris Cornell at his most expansive. It’s the perfect ending to the album.

The singer-songwriter format is particularly difficult to pull off on record. The more opulent that production becomes, the more people expect all the bells and whistles of a modern studio and, without the obvious connection an artist creates when on stage in front of an audience, a straight recording can feel empty. Of course, there are artists who, through sheer force of personality, can overcome such perceived limitations, somehow pulling off the trick that sees the listener forget the format in order to focus on the songs. Neil Young is a perfect example, his rare ability to create an atmosphere with just guitar and voice well-documented over the years. Similarly, William DuVall imbues each song with so much force and life that the listener loses sight of just how Spartan these arrangements are – a compelling sign of his talent. Possessed of a remarkable voice, William engages the listener from the opening song and keeps that attention right to the bitter end. Whilst there are those who will undoubtedly miss the firepower of his day job (and there are songs here that would make for magnificent electric workouts, given half a chance), this is a wonderfully raw and stripped down opportunity to get to know William as an individual and, in this, he shines. 8.5