The Smallest Room
  • Menu

    Music
    Arts
    About
    Travel
    Teach

  • MUSIC
    • record reviews
    • LIVE REVIEWS
    • features
  • ARTS
  • About
  • Travel
  • Teach
0

daughn gibson – ME MOAN

First published in the Sydney Morning Herald, July 2013


This second record from Philadelphia singer Daughn Gibson has most of the hallmarks of last year’s debut All Hell but few of its charms. On All Hell, Gibson draped his suave baritone over beats and loops plucked largely from country and Americana. The theatrical pathos of his voice barely matched backing tracks that were brisk or otherwise ill-suited but, miraculously, the combo worked.

Me Moan pushes that formula past the point where it actually sounds good. Gibson’s efforts to diversify his bevy of sounds results in attention-seeking samples like the bagpipes on ‘Mad Ocean’ or the glitchy noise on ‘The Right Signs’. A frantic drum track overpowers ‘The Sound of Law’ – in fact, the drum machine commits multiple sins on this record – and Gibson makes such an almighty lunge for country-rock crooner on ‘Kissin on the Blacktop’ that it’s unclear if he’s motivated by irony or genuine soul. When he strips it back and gears it down, as on the slide-guitar-drenched lope of ‘The Pisgee Nest’, things improve.

[rating: 2]


Share Tweet

Kate

You Might Also Like

  • LIVE REVIEWS

    Floors of Heaven underwater concert (Woolloomooloo Bay)

  • features

    The ‘Yolŋu surf rock’ of Yothu Yindi’s next generation

  • LIVE REVIEWS

    William Crighton (The Great Club)

Search

Twitter

Tweets by @smallestroom

Recent articles

  • Floors of Heaven underwater concert (Woolloomooloo Bay) February 19, 2022
  • The ‘Yolŋu surf rock’ of Yothu Yindi’s next generation February 17, 2022
  • A gentle hidden gem: a visitor’s guide to the NSW far south coast January 8, 2022
  • ‘An inscrutable and open-ended riddle’: the life and art of Jeffrey Smart December 11, 2021
  • Trekking the Great Ocean Walk: ‘Stand with no land mass between your sweaty skin and Antarctica’ December 7, 2021
  • MUSIC
    • record reviews
    • LIVE REVIEWS
    • features
  • ARTS
  • About
  • Travel
  • Teach

My name is Kate Hennessy. I am a freelance arts and travel writer and music critic. I contribute to Guardian Australia, The Sydney Morning Herald/The Age, The Saturday Paper, The Australian, The Australian Financial Review, The Wire (UK), NME and more.

Latest posts

  • Floors of Heaven underwater concert (Woolloomooloo Bay)

    February 19, 2022
  • The ‘Yolŋu surf rock’ of Yothu Yindi’s next generation

    February 17, 2022
  • A gentle hidden gem: a visitor’s guide to the NSW far south coast

    January 8, 2022
  • ‘An inscrutable and open-ended riddle’: the life and art of Jeffrey Smart

    December 11, 2021
  • Trekking the Great Ocean Walk: ‘Stand with no land mass between your sweaty skin and Antarctica’

    December 7, 2021

Twitter

Tweets by @smallestroom

Search