A Review of Losing Steam by Gord Wilson
While running on the treadmill, I wait to see what song Iggy, my iPod shuffle, will choose next. Most of the songs I don’t recognize from the first few strains. Some I click ahead to find something wilder for the warm-up or mellow for the cool down. But one artist I can always recognize, and often anticipate when I hear the first few, unmistakable bars. Sometimes I even help Iggy by clicking to the next song, hoping against hope that it’s Dann Gunn.
Why? I don’t really know. The punk rawk of MXPX gets the blood pumping and I run faster and harder. That compelling guitar of Third Day, at the other end of the spectrum and the workout, cools down into rest and rejoicing. The U2 songs lift the heart. Steve Scott awakens the brain. The Alarm rejuvenate with their rousing anthems. Everyone on the lineup does their part, but when Iggy brings up Dann Gunn, something special happens. Something in my soul resonates with the music and the words. Some answering reason affirms an unspoken question. You’d think it would get old, as so many things have. But it doesn’t. At least, not for me. It’s still as fresh as the first time I heard it, when an album by a previously unknown artist gripped my heart, and stirred my blood, and made me realize I was alive. And it does that every time.
“Losing Steam” is what an indie album ought to be. It doesn’t sound commercial. It’s not “unplugged”, but it sounds homemade. Part studio and part live, but not overburdened and smothered by effects. Then there are Dann Gunn’s soaring, passionate vocals, suggestive to me of the late Michael Been of the Call. If his simple, creative, inventive dreamscapes and visionary lyrics bring to mind anything, it’s Alan Parsons Project, probably for the deft use of synthesizer, so subtle and understated. If I think of anyone when listening, it’s Pascal and his famous phrase, “The heart has its reasons which reason does not know”.
In the requisite history, this 1997 album falls between his earlier release as Velocipede, entitled Sane in 1994 on REX Records, and his 2010 six song MP3 available on Amazon entitled Easy. More music spills over both of these arbitrary boundaries, as well as sloshing about in the middle, but they serve as convenient signposts to consider this set of songs, and also give an insight into his way of working. Some of the music on the third song of Sane inspires or is reborn in a wonderfully crafted song on Steam, “Secret Language”. The next Sane song is entitled “I Catch My Breath, I Let it Go”. This marvelous line finds its way into one of my favorite songs on Steam, an invitation of welcome to a newborn called “Waiting for You”.
There’s also a six song EP from 1999 recorded by Ed Sharpe with the working title of Floating, Spinning, Upside Down, also reflected in the themes of several songs. Song one is called “Unwinding Song”. There’s a completely different song called “Unwinding” on the 2010 album, Easy. Clearly, Dann knew that was too good a title, or idea, or image to let go. Since Dann sent them to me together, I think of Easy and Steam as one album, despite slight stylistic differences. When the Choir put the entire EP of Shades of Gray as a bonus on the CD of Chase the Kangaroo (itself already a perfect album), it seemed to meld together as one unimaginably perfect thing. Ditto for Dann.
Mostly, the music on Easy is (ironically) heavier, but Dann’s sailing, versatile voice is the same. At first this was a bit jarring, accustomed as I was to the smoother mix of Steam. But now when Iggy brings up an Easy song, it’s a welcome shift to rough and ragged, yet another facet of the ever inventive Dann Gunn. I realize, of course, that I’m setting up some readers and listeners for a let down. One man’s cup of tea, and all that. But I like Dann Gunn’s music by contrast with what I consider the way overdone soulless, mindless, heartless business-as-usual pop which envelopes radio like an octopus, regardless whether its first name is Country, Rock, Contemporary, Alternative or CCM.
In closing, what about this album is so different for me? Maybe it’s what’s the same. Maybe it taps into a primal stream, an old and ancient vein, something ordinary and universal. Maybe it’s about something so near that I generally can’t see it, and so far that I give up seeking to find. For me it strikes a responsive chord as Dann sings, “This is how my heart unfolds/ I catch my breath, I let it go”. Unforced, effortless, sailing over the abyss, sounding the depths of the soul, echoing in the infinite yearning. Robust, rousing, evocative, confident, unique, memorable, quotable, unforgettable, yet deceptively simple.
“But I could sink beneath the sum of all my deepest fears
and live in greatest comfort there as long as you are near.”
Those lines come from “Hide” on Losing Steam, a song that at 1:43 is far too short and almost stops my heart every time I hear it. What’s next, Iggy? I hope it’s Dann Gunn.
[1997 Independent | Download: Danngunn.com]
Leave a Reply