For those of you who don’t know, Dave House is part of Lucky Thirteen, a band that probably should be more widely known than they actually are. As an aside to his normal band, Mr House penned a collection of songs and recorded this album, ‘Kingston’s Current’, a collection of tracks which take in influences such as Ryan Adams, Death Cab For Cutie and even The Weakerthans (especially vocally), all with a Kingston edge. The album references the area Dave House calls home, with several songs directly referencing the area – ‘Bacchus and Bridges’ and the album’s title track immediately spring to mind.
Many of the songs here have a Weakerthans style charm – the finger-picked ‘Weeknights and Weekends’, complete with cello, and an acoustic version of the Lucky Thirteen song ‘Stereo’ are beautifully tender songs that could easily become lighters-in-the-air classics. There’s even room to cover Neil Young’s ‘Tell Me Why’, which sounds a little rougher than some of the other tracks but I think that adds to the charm.
It’s not just an acoustic heaven mind you, as this record also features keys and a cello and some random sampled bits, or at least what sounds like random sampled bits (I’m talking about the intro to ‘In This Machine’ for anyone who doesn’t know what I’m talking about). It’s this track, one of my favourites, that comes complete with handclaps and a really hooky chorus that perhaps sums up this album – it’s a beautifully written and intelligent look at one man’s view of his home life. Be sure to check this out, it’s one of the best ‘solo’ albums I’ve heard in recent months.
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Paul