Record Review // Good Dog Nigel "The Implied Sunrise" (Harding Street Assembly Lab / Infinite Repeats)

$13 //
Edition of 200 //
https://gooddognigel.bandcamp.com/album/the-implied-sunrise //

When I first listened to "The Implied Sunrise" one of my thoughts was that this had a certain country feel to it, an alt-rock type of country sound if you will.    By the time I got to the last song though, I made the comparison with Flaming Lips which had me listening to this record completely different on subsequent listens.   I don't hear the country anymore- perhaps it is something you might hear on your first listen but it will also be stripped away the more you listen to this.    Sure, it still comes out a little bit on a song like "Canyon", but it's not as apparent throughout the entire record.

For the five songs on here, there are a lot of musical influences I can make and none of them seem to quite hit the mark.   From Beck to What Made Milwaukee Famous, I hear bits of Neil Young and Radiohead.   There are sweet guitar riffs, sped up psych sounds and on some level this has those same elements on radio rock.    Overall I just feel like Good Dog Nigel has a sound like Spoon, as an example, where they could be on the radio- and maybe you've heard their song on the radio but you're not sure, but you definitely feel like you've heard them in a movie somewhere, perhaps one by Judd Apatow.

"Comedy" might be the most lively of the songs, as it has a fast paced that's somewhere between surf and good old fashioned rock n roll.   I enjoy this song lyrically as well because it has that idea of laughing because you don't know what else to do- and I feel like that a lot, like I'm the type of person who gets nervous and tries to hide those nerves with laughter and jokes.  But also it reflects on how comedy and tragedy are the same it's just a matter of timing, as they say, which I believe is a concept which is too strong to ignore and for various reasons always makes me think of Robin Williams.

As the album comes to an end, it does so with a song called "Smashing Your Windshields" which does one of my favorite things in music: it has such as an upbeat and light-hearted way about the sound (complete with la-la-la's in the chorus) and the lyrics are a bit darker, about the destruction of personal property.    This song can sound fun until perhaps you start paying attention to the lyrics.   And you really should pay attention to the lyrics on these songs because once you've listened to them enough to feel like you're comfortable with the sound, you're going to want to get the full story and just experience the words as well.