Album of the Day — July 25
Dawes — Nothing Is Wrong
Dawes — Nothing Is Wrong
25.July.2020
Dawes
Nothing Is Wrong
2011
For anyone who thinks the “Laurel Canyon sound” is no mas’, they only need to listen to Dawes.
For anyone wondering what the Laurel Canyon sound is — it’s songs that are well-written, well-played and well-sung. Characterized by bands like Crosby, Stills, and Nash and artists like Jackson Browne (who makes an appearance on this album).
Put another way, if Nothing Is Wrong had been released in 1979, it would’ve been a massive hit.
Released in 2011, the album did well enough to chart on most of Billboard Magazine’s US album charts:
Folk Albums — #5
Independent Albums — #10
Top Rock Albums — #18
Top Tastemaker Albums — #8
and cracking the Top 100 on Billboards Albums — #64
The band currently consists of brothers Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith (guitar, vocals, and drums respectively), Wylie Gelber (bass), Lee Pardini (keyboards).
The band’s debut North Hills was produced by Jonathan Wilson and recorded in Laurel Canyon using the old school technique of playing live to tape. The result is an authentic-sounding album that was met with a modest shrug by most in 2009.
When the band reconvened with Wilson for a follow-up, they embraced a similar recording style. The difference between North Hills and Nothing Is Wrong is that in the two intervening years, Taylor Goldsmith’s songwriting had taken a big step.
The songs on Nothing Is Wrong are written with a similar sensibility to Goldsmith’s apparent influences like Tom Petty and Jackson Browne and belie the songwriters 26 years (at the time of the recording). There is a depth, sensitivity, and maturity here that most 40-year-old songwriters never achieve … to be honest, a maturity many songwriters never achieve.
While the subject matter is typical fare, love, heartache, heartbreak, etc. — it’s your “somebody don someone wrong” songs. Goldsmith leans into traditional rock songwriting and that makes all the difference because, with songs like this, it’s how the stories are told that make them unique.
There’s the bouncy “Coming Back to a Man” — a story of someone meeting up with an old lover. A lover who is seeking some type of redemption for some type of transgression. It’s not a bitter or angry song, it’s just factual and raw and can be summed up in one line. See if you can find it:
Coming Back to a Man
You still wear your hair to your shoulder
You still look like a Friday night
You’re still caught somewhere
Between the plans and the dreams
So that neither end up turning outright
And I myself look a few moments older
When I learned that love is not as simple as I thought
It starts to feel more real and the wounds all start to heal
Whether I want them to or not
So tell me why you think I should forgive what you did
And I’ll tell you if I understand
’Cause you broke the quick-giving heart of a kid
But you’re now coming back to a man
It means a lot that you came here to speak to me
And I will listen in ways I never did before
I’ll catch the pause between each word
And when your presentations heard
Then I’ll need to show you to the door
’Cause some people were just meant to be a memory
To be called upon to remind us how we’ve changed
The way the scattered ever-busy bright lights of a city
Might look off to a distant mountain range
And the guy you know is someone I work hard at keeping hid
And he is very good at sticking to the plan
’Cause you broke the quick-giving heart of a kid
But you’re now coming back to a man
I might think of you more often then I’m willing to admit
But I can’t show every card I’m holding in my hand
’Cause you broke the quick-giving heart of a kid
But you’re now coming back to a man
It’s the line — “’Cause some people were just meant to be a memory” — that packs the g-force of a Mike Tyson punch of brutal honesty for me. Some lovers you can keep as friends and some you can’t … and some aren’t meant to be forgiven.
Nothing Is Wrong is loaded with great songs about love and the potentiality for pain. These are the types of songs that may not get your ass shaking, but they will get your foot tapping and force you to crack a smile of acknowledgment on their pure relatability.
Take the album’s closer, “The Way You Laugh”. The foot-tapping shuffle of the song does a fine job of hiding the jabs in it:
The Way You Laugh
I suppose we are born from our silence
But you seem to take yours with you
You treat all of your love as defiance
Like a child that refuses to bloom
You forced me to face all of your beauty
Then turned your beauty away from yourself
This road that we’ve taken doesn’t seem to stop here
But doesn’t seem to go anywhere else
And your heart rests in your chest
Like a charm ‘round your neck
That you couldn’t find words to refuse
And this high horse you ride
It has broken its stride
As it leads us through worlds built for you
So walk with me a little bit further
So I can find the tenderness you keep inside
God made you with a taste for the madness in love
But you confuse your gift with your pride
And I can’t help you with removing that bandage
I will leave you all to yourself while you heal
As I’m learning time is a language
And it’s the best way to explain how I feel
And while the magician you meet
Sweeps you off your feet
Saying he’ll teach you his tricks all for free
I’ll be in the way that you laugh
As he cuts you in half
And holds you up for the crowds all to see
So forgive me for feeling so strongly
But I feel like we can finally agree
That true lovers always end up lonely
’Cause they know how good it could be
I’ve heard the men in your wake
Describe you as a snake
As you slip away when they start to wilt
But I firmly believe
You’re a lot more like Eve
As she enjoys a bit of her guilt
Have you been in love with someone and know there is nowhere you can go?
This road that we’ve taken doesn’t seem to stop here
But doesn’t seem to go anywhere else
Have you been in love with someone who leaves you saying they need “space”?
I will leave you all to yourself while you heal
As I’m learning time is a language
And it’s the best way to explain how I feel
Have you been in love with someone who left you for someone else, always thinking the grass is greener? Not understanding that grass can go yellow … but you can water it and turn it green again.
And while the magician you meet
Sweeps you off your feet
Saying he’ll teach you tricks all for free
I’ll be in the way that you laugh
As he cuts you in half
And holds you up for the crowds all to see
So forgive me for feeling so strongly
But I feel like we can finally agree
That true lovers always end up lonely
’Cause they know how good it could be
CRITICS:
Wyndham Wyeth in Paste Magazine called it “truly special” saying: “Goldsmith’s songwriting and the band’s reverence for their musical forefathers aren’t the only shining aspects of the new record. After two years of fine-tuning their live sound, all of the members of Dawes have become master musicians not only individually, but as a collective.”
Paula Carino at American Songwriter said Nothing Is Wrong and that the album “succeeds on its own terms, and will appeal to fans of solid roots-rock songwriting.”
Johan Alm writing at Beats Per Minute wrote: “The band’s development as musicians and the excellent production, the growth and increasingly personal nature of Taylor Goldsmith’s songwriting is what makes Nothing Is Wrong the success it is.”
It would be an error to overlook the seeming simplicity of Jonathan Wilson’s production here. While it may sound like Nothing Is Wrong is effortless, that’s part of the talent that a good producer brings to the equation.
Intentionally or not, some albums make you struggle to listen to the songs, no matter how good the song[s] may be … this is not one of those albums, and that’s a nod to not only the songs but the production.
There are several reasons why Dawes was able to infiltrate the classic rock icon strata like backing Robbie Robertson (The Band), enlisting Jackson Browne to sing on Nothing Is Wrong, and getting Benmont Tench (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) to play keyboards on three tracks here … chief among them is the band’s talent and genuine appreciation for the musicians and music that preceded them.
It’s safe to say that the kids are alright and that there is nothing wrong with Nothing Is Wrong.