Review by Paul Monkhouse for MPM
The king of English desert rock is back and all is well. Having made his name as the leader of swamp rock cult legends Tribe of Dan, the newly relocated Dan Donovan returns to the fray with his most visceral gut punch of an album yet.
‘Bones and Stones’ is as raw and uncompromising as anything you’ll hear this year, building from the low-fi records of the past and putting more meat on the (ahem) bones. There’s always a thrill when Donovan announces a new release, the tightrope walk between madness and genius, a mouthwatering prospect full of danger and unexpected twists and turns.
This is music done very much on his terms, his singular voice drawing the listener into tales that sound as old as the very earth itself. Eschewing the temptation to agonize over every note until any semblance of life is drained out of it, this has more of a free-flowing feel that echoes Jack Kerouac and conjures images of Tom Waits if he was more in thrall to blues than jazz. Alongside this, there’s a bit more of a punk aesthetic that hints at something untamable and Donovan’s voice coming across like John the Baptist in the wilderness, all wild-eyed passion and irresistible rhetoric.
Stripped back and feral, opener ‘Roll Them Bones’ transports you into a world of panoramic highways and endless vistas of sun scorched sands, the smell of hot tarmac coming up from the blacktop. It’s most definitely his kingdom and the desert rock meets The Clash stylings of ‘Hey Hey Pretty Human’ add another layer to the already intoxicating mix, the unhinged ‘Sun Up Tic Tock’ that follows slamming home the point that we’re not in Kansas anymore. From the sinister ‘The Dark Glass’ to a shimmering paeon to his old home ‘Fen Lands’, this is an album of moods and textures, splashed on a broad canvas by a master at his craft.
Constantly moving forward and twisting, there’s huge variety in what lies inside but the whole is anchored to its central soul, the very human heart beating at the centre of the whirlwind. A gloriously fuzzy ‘She’, primal ‘Boy Oh Boy’ and haunting ‘Roll Them Bones – Dark Mix’ fly by and before you know it the journey finishes with the beautifully cool ‘Blues Dirge’, the time to catch a breath now. With Donovan providing all lead vocals, guitar and mouth organ alongside drummer Dom Ridley at the core of this all, ‘Bones and Stones’ is never cluttered or overly busy, letting the music do all the talking and that’s exactly as it should be.
With the recent passing of so many individual voices in music, it’s great to welcome home one of the true mavericks and ‘Bones and Stones’ deserves its place in the collection of any and all lovers of great songs. Vital listening and something that touches the soul as much as it transports the mind.
