Anders Parker – Tell It To The Dust
For those who loved Varnaline’s 2001 album Songs In A Northern Key, it’s good to hear that Anders Parker still hasn’t found what he’s looking for. Practically every song from the boyishly yearning Parker can be heard as a mythic quest, a rite of passage, a voyage from innocence to experience (or occasionally from bitter experience to recaptured innocence). On some of them, Parker seeks companionship or provides comfort for someone else on life’s lonely journey. Nobody Parker knows is content to stay home.
Musically, his solo debut (though Varnaline’s releases could as easily have been billed as solo projects) covers plenty of territory as well. On the album-opening title track alone, he proceeds from a propulsive acoustic lilt that evokes memories of Uncle Tupelo (indeed, Jay Farrar guests on the album) into a squawl of electric guitar worthy of Dinosaur Jr. The harmonies on the bridge of “Goodbye Friend” strike a Beatlesque chord, while the plaintive piano of “Innocents” recalls the 1970 of Neil Young’s After The Gold Rush and John Lennon’s emotionally naked Plastic Ono Band.
Whether or not Parker ever establishes himself as one of the greats, he remains so steeped in their influence that his music could be categorized as “alt-classic.” Yet he distinguishes himself with his songwriting, through a combination of craft, conviction and open-ended wonder. “I’m tired of all these contradictions/I’m heading out toward the light,” he sings with typical wanderlust in “Goodbye Friend”. In search of that light, Parker’s solo debut is one of the most luminous releases we’re likely to hear this year.