My reviews are often filled with snarky references regarding the milquetoast music of modern folk and pop artists, especially those lamewads who are actually able to get their boring, repetitive three-chord ditties onto mainstream radio stations. Yes, I fully realize that corporate labels and radio stations are all about the cash – their job is to put out a music-related product whose primary goal is to maximize the profit margin. I get it; I really do, but I am continually confounded by what they consider to be “good.” If a station wants to play good music in order to attract listeners so that they can attract advertising dollars, shouldn’t they want to locate singers and bands from any and all available strata in order to create and market that great product?

Consider the case of Dark Captain Light Captain and their release Miracle Kicker. The album is a font of glistening guitar plucking, hushed harmonizing vocals, and brisk brushed drumming over a bed of lushly layered keyboard swells. The entire effort swims in a deep ocean of melancholy, but retains a lightness, a buoyancy in the atmosphere that prevents the band and the listener from drowning. What strikes me the most with this record is its pacing and tempos, in that, though the vocals and strings call you, like sensual sirens, to crash and founder upon their beautiful shores, the drumming presses each song steadily onward toward completion. Even if you were to remove the rhythm section to discover a fairly typical folk act, their voices and instrumental arrangements still rich and enchanting.

Is Dark Captain Light Captain not on the radio because they’re not some fresh-faced young solo artist with a winsome smile and quirky lyrics? Or is it because they’re not a bombastic rock outfit with a preening lead singer, soaring guitars, booming bass, and driving drums? I can’t quite figure it out and I’m not sure I’m supposed to do so. The band themselves might not even be worried about it; they might be happy with constant touring to promote the record. Whatever – it is what it is. Maybe I’m the one who’s naïve enough to think that songs like “Jealous Enemies,” “Circles,” and “Speak” would actually find a welcome reception from music-lovers who are radio listeners, replacing poppy schlock like Colby Caillat, Jack Johnson, Jason Mraz, and Sara Bareilles. All of my ranting aside, Miracle Kicker is full of life and replete with a high degree of musicianship; there should be more bands like this one out there helping to redefine how folk and pop really could sound.

[review by guest contributor Adam P. Newton]

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