Devon Williams- Euphoria
Devon Williams (ex-Oskar) has been making the rounds lately under a moniker that’s his own name making dreamy, layered pop music for the last few years after a brief stint with Lavender Diamond and a folkier band, Fingers Cut Megamachine. After releasing a a full length LP in 2008, the follow up has been long awaited. One hundred precent dream pop, this is a bouncy record that definitely is a grower.
The first time I heard this record, I was really quick to write it off. The first track seems to drag on and on (I still think it kind of does) and has a hyper repeated phrase that sort of nags at you (Consequently, it’s “Revelations, revelations, revelations”, the name of the song). But shortly afterward, the dreaminess kicks in and the hooks start coming in all kinds of full, bursting arrangements. ’Your Sympathy’ is a clinger, it gets stuck in your head, when the big string section comes, and doesn’t leave. Chorus-ed out guitars and solos are everywhere and gives you a nice little blanket of dreamy fun on the following track too, ‘Favor Tree’. But just as the whole experience starts to get a little weary, the strongest part of the record comes up, ‘Sufferer’ and ‘Tower of Thought’. The two songs, ballady and introspective, they refresh the whole record and at the perfect time, at the 5th and 6th songs. The two of them encompass the best production and songwriting moments of the record and capitalize on the hazy-chorus guitar mantra of dream pop and the state of mood. In particular, ‘Sufferer’ is the more lyrically driven song, with the hook being ‘Shed your fear/and I will share mine’, it’s a perfect line that couples with the melody. ’Tower of Thought’ is one of the most, musically engaging, dream pop songs I’ve heard.
The rest of the record kind of falls into a routine, not a bad one per say… But one at that. There is one last moment of ‘great’ though, before it’s all said and done on ‘Tired of Mulling’. It’s a slower jam, but definitely something that resonates on a different level compared to the tracks around it.
Overall, Euphoria is one of those records that manages to be big and epic, but without sounding cheesy or forced, like other purveyors of big music (Florence + The Machine, Coldplay, for example). It’s well crafted and genuine, something definitely that shines out among the rest of the Slumberland/Burger records catalog.
Check it out now!
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