Dave Clarkson - Was Life Sweeter?

 

Released: May 9

There’s a lot of things I like about this album. First and foremost, being that it comes on cassette and digital, I have to just take a moment to point out how awesome the packaging is for the cassette. It’s a lovely piece designed to look like a chocolate bar complete with a foil wrapper and everything around it. It’s truly a genius packaging move and I wish I would’ve thought of it myself. As for the theme of this album, I find it to be equally inspired. The whole theme of the album is a type of nostalgia that takes all the way back to our early childhood, before we had to deal with all the drudgery of adulthood. Clarkson plays on this theme by bringing in all manner of references to candy, commonly equated with childhood, as a vehicle for that wistful reflection to ask to question presented in the album title - Was Life Sweeter?

Sonically, the album perfectly embodies this wistful reflection with wispy and faded synth tones and remarkable field recordings. On “Bournville” these two techniques Coalesce perfectly with one another as we hear soft synth tones play a short and simple melody over the sounds of excited children playing on the playground. It paints a picture of youthful energy as seen through the eyes of an older person well into their middle age with all the hazy and dulled colors we might expect. But not all of the album is slow and wistful as the very next track takes a faster approach with racing synth arpeggios and a drum beat that is adjacent to drum and bass or even breakbeat. It’s kind of a weird track though because it feels like it plays on the same theme of nostalgia for childhood years, but does so by exemplifying the pace at which we have to live in adulthood, starting things off with the dreaded sound of an alarm clock ringing in the early morning. 

Overall, I think this is an almost flawlessly executed album. It sticks to its theme extraordinarily well and goes in many different directions with it. Tonally, it is simply incredible to my ears, primarily because of the sonic treatments given to the synths. Clarkson perfectly captured a wispy, wistful, and nostalgic tone with all of these tracks. It feels vintage, but not comically overdone. Just a perfect encapsulation of that rose-colored glasses look towards our childhood in the face of adult responsibilities and trials. Highly recommended listening here.