Categories : Folk + Roots, Music Reviews, Rock + Pop.
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Rating: 3.5 / 5 Reviewer: Kevin Hartford |
The title track of # Zero With A Bullet is about a singer-songwriter struggling with failure, then struggling equally with the prospect of success. David Dondero has been playing music (most notably as drummer for folk-punk act This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb) for more than twenty years, building a solid reputation as an independent artist without ever breaking through to the mainstream.
It would be easy to mistake Bullet for a lost Bright Eyes album, and with good reason – Bright Eyes frontman Conor Oberst has, in no particular order, cited Dondero as an influence, signed him to a record label, and sang a song with him that ended with the two men debating what a tangelo was (“a pear-shaped orange,” according to Dondero). Like Oberst, Dondero has a wavering voice, a songwriting technique that focuses on storytelling, and a fondness for folk rock and acoustic guitars. His biggest stumbling block to success might be an overcrowded marketplace.
Also: his choices. Bullet is an excellent EP buried in a full-length album. It starts out with two forgettable tracks, followed by five outstanding ones, two more duds, and another good one. One of the weaker efforts, ‘Job Boss,’ is as generic a comment on middle-class repression as its name implies. But those six other songs – ‘Just A Baby In Your Momma’s Eyes,’ ‘# Zero With A Bullet,’ ‘It’s Peaceful Here,’ ‘Carolina Moon,’ ‘Wherever You Go,’ and ‘All These Fishies Swimmin’ Through My Head,’ are great, almost stunning, and would have stood up just fine on their own.
